>> Launchbury proves England are world class
The record books will point to a very significant historic win – England’s first over the Boks for ten years – but in truth this felt like a routine triumph from a team that can still improve out of all recognition. Happily, England themselves are more aware of this than anybody which augers well for the rest of the autumn
On this occasion, they mixed the very good with the poor. There were way too many penalties early on – six in the first 19 minutes for starters – while there were passages of sloppy defence that will irritate Eddie Jones and Paul Gustard immensely.
There were, however, also lots of clinical attacking brilliance that will linger long in the memory. Jonny May’s try was a sumptuous set-piece effort that made a complicated game look ridiculously easy while Ben Youngs threw two irresistible dummies to create tries for both George Ford and Owen Farrell.
Youngs’ importance to England is sometimes underestimated, possibly because the occasional poor game promotes the thought that he is not nailed on as the starting nine, but the truth is when he plays well England play well.
When buzzing round to maximum effect, Youngs times his short passing around the fringes to England’s big runners with split second efficiency and, better still, when he is dialled in, nobody sells a dummy more persuasively. Yesterday he did Peter-Steph du Toit in cold blood twice with both breaks leading to tries, first for Ford and then for Farrell.
In passing – or perhaps that should be not passing – there is an important lesson for the Boks with those two tries and indeed rugby teams around the world. Du Toit is a cracking international lock, indeed he is South Africa’s player of the season, but at the very top level he simply doesn’t have the all-round game to play wing forward. You just can’t take liberties like that.
The Boks should have realised that last season when they started him in the backrow against Japan in the World Cup. Under pressure yesterday they reverted to type and looked to get all their biggest forwards on the pitch.
That non-too subtle thinking borders on the prehistoric and the Boks have got to sharpen up their approach if they are to reverse their way out of the cul de sac they find themselves in.
For Eddie Jones, as he reviews the game, this was almost the perfect scenario. A comfortable win to kick the autumn off against England’s bogey team but plenty to work on at training this week ahead of the Fiji game.
The first quarter was poor and not just the penalties. There was a lack of intensity and focus, while England failed to finish with the flourish that Jones and the England fans will have hoped for.
What will please the coach though is that the way England absorbed six changes – five of them injury induced – from last time out against Australia. All concerned acquitted themselves well with Joe
Launchbury the pick of the crop claiming the official MoM award – I would have gone with Youngs – with a near flawless performance on his return to starting duties.
To my eyes Launchbury is England’s modern-day Bill Beaumont, he even runs with Bill’s distinctive gait and has the same unselfish willingness to put in the unglamorous hard yards and absorb a good deal of the blows and pain being dished out.
He has also been unlucky. Until he picked up a horrible neck injury he was well established as England’s first choice lock. He returned in time for the World Cup when he was one of England’s better performers although by no means at his best. Then, almost from nowhere, came the rise and rise of Maro Itoje and George Kruis and suddenly he was either on the bench or not playing at all.
That has been tough to take but you can’t keep a good man down and Launchbury is now back to his very best which is good news for England every which way.
With Itoje and Kruis crocked this autumn he is a key player right now and for the future. Look how New Zealand stumbled in Chicago against Ireland when they were suddenly denied the services of Brodie Retallick ad Sam Whitelock.
If you aspire to be one of the top two or three teams in the world you need world class cover in all the key positions and England are working steadily towards that.
“To my eyes Launchbury is England’s modern day Bill Beaumont”