FORD’S FINESSE SWINGS IT FOR EDDIE
Jones goes for creativity over power to counter the All Blacks
ENGLAND will go into their World Cup semi- final with friends reunited in the back line. George Ford and Owen Farrell are set to resume their creative alliance in a bid to outmanoeuvre the All Blacks.
Eddie Jones is due to name his line-up this morning and last night appeared poised to revert to the Ford-Farrell 10-12 axis for the country’s biggest match in a generation. England haven’t reached this stage of a Word Cup since 2007 and Jones has evidently decided that enhancing the playmaker department makes sense for this momentous fixture.
This is a horses-for-courses call.
He removed Ford last Saturday with a view to stopping powerful Australia centre Samu Kerevi from running amok. Manu Tuilagi shifted infield one place to provide a bulwark. But New Zealand’s midfield pair, Anton LienertBrown and Jack Goodhue, are not as physically imposing, so England are able to consider creative needs over destructive ones.
When Ford was left out of the starting XV for the quarter-final victory over Australia, Jones denounced any suggestions he had been ‘dropped’. The head coach duly talked about him switching to a ‘finisher’ role, but the wisdom of his decision to reduce the Leicester fly- half ’ s duties was called into question.
Ford had arguably been the outstanding performer in England’s pool- stage campaign. On form, there was no way that he deserved to be withdrawn from starting duties. He had provided control and a cutting edge in equal measure, not to mention a healthy dose of leadership authority.
Crucially, Ford’s tactical kicking has been imperious and that may provide a clue to England’s strategy on Saturday. When he came off the bench against Australia, he soon delivered an impressive long-range touch-finder and that is surely the sort of territorial platform Jones’ side will wish to establish against New Zealand.
Ford lost his England No 10 place on the tour of South Africa last summer and was consigned to a replacement role during the 2018-19 campaign, but all the while he was flourishing in a struggling Leicester team.
So compelling was his form and the revival of his knack for threatening the gainline that Jones (right) could not ignore him. Sure enough, during the World Cup warm-up fixtures in August, the Ford-Farrell alliance was revived and it prospered. With Tuilagi reinstated at outside centre, the midfield trio combined to produce a record-breaking demolition of Ireland at Twickenham.
All of a sudden, it appeared as if this would be the World
Cup blueprint and it was the approach employed by Jones for the Pool C opener against Tonga in Sapporo on September 22. But after Farrell had been off-colour in the win over Argentina, missing kicks at goal and lacking authority in possession, Jones reacted by dropping Ford. The selection was harshly scrutinised but it worked. Farrell was revitalised in the 40-16 win over the Wallabies, not least with a perfect eight-from- eight return from the tee. The danger of this reversion to the twin playmaker model is that the skipper’s switch from No 10 back to inside centre may inhibit him again just when he was starting to flourish. On the flip side, Jones and his assistants will have seen that deploying ball-players at 10 and 12 can work against the All Blacks. It certainly did for the Lions in 2017, when Johnny Sexton and Far r e l l joined forces for the second and
third Tests as the tourists claimed a victory and a draw to tie the series 1-1.
An English juggernaut will thunder into Yokohama Stadium, making no apology for seeking to employ pack clout and set-piece prowess. With the latter target in mind, Saracens lock George Kruis is set to be preferred to Courtney Lawes and oversee the lineout. This was an area in which the English challenge unravelled at Twickenham last November on the way to an agonising one-point loss to the All Blacks.
Kruis’ presence will address that problem without sacrificing either of the dynamic young flankers, Jones’ so-called ‘Kamikaze Kids’ Tom Curry and Sam Underhill.
Curry has worked at becoming a lineout option, which will be necessary against a Kiwi lineout with accomplished jumpers Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read and Sam Cane.