England must raise roof at Twickenham
SET PIECE CAN TURN SCREW
THERE were complaints that Twickenham felt flat last week against Argentina. Sunday Tests always seem to lose a bit of fervour but the primary responsibility for any atmosphere shortfall lies with the players.
It is up to the team to lift the crowd, not vice versa – and England failed to do that with their performance.
They weren’t clinical with the ball in attack and their old Achilles heel of a sky-high penalty count returned to haunt them. Argentina deserved their win and England need a significant uplift today against Japan.
England would have identified this as the game to experiment in their autumn schedule and the look of Eddie
Jones’s side today suggests they still do
– but they need to be careful. I have a feeling this game will be a lot tougher than some may think.
Japan gave the All Blacks a real run for their money a fortnight ago and, if they can score 31 points against
New Zealand, carry a threat should be wary of.
They play a unique style, they are all-action, they are organised and they are super fit. Unless England are able to control the speed of the game there will be wave after wave coming at them. England need to have their nuts and bolts right and lean on their set piece to turn the screw. They have to take it to Japan physically. Only then will they earn the right to play to the crowd and hopefully run in some tries.
Any England side without Manu Tuilagi starting is depowered, but I can see the sense in mothballing the Sale man given his injury record. It also gives Guy Porter an opportunity to show what he can do in the centre.
Likewise, it is a big day for players such as Jack van Poortvliet, who upped the pace last week when he came off the bench and is putting pressure on Ben Youngs at scrum-half, Sam Simmonds and the debutant David Ribbans in the second-row. There aren’t too many Tests between now and the World Cup so it may be a case of now or never for some of these players.
It will be an interesting exercise. If England happened to lose again, they would find themselves in a very deep hole.
They absolutely cannot afford to take Japan lightly.