Gatland has to be worried by captaincy shambles

Last weekend unexpectedly threw up the most intriguing Six Nations clash. England v Italy was akin to watching a car crash: I couldn’t take my eyes off it, but at times I wanted to hide behind the settee and look through my fingers!

For me the most significant aspect was seeing world-class professional players so far out of their depth that it was embarrassing. How anyone can get to international level in a sport and be so unfamiliar with the laws is utterly beyond me, and, by the way, they’re not rules, they’re laws! Watching Dylan Hartley and James Haskell like little boys lost in front of referee Romain Poite made for wonderful television, but it beggars belief that someone with 70+ international caps could ask, ‘what do we have to do for it to be a ruck?’ Incidentally, if you’d paid through the nose for a ticket, you’d have seen the game, but much of the drama would have passed you by if you weren’t able to hear what was being said.

This was a huge test of Hartley’s captaincy credentials, for both England and the Lions, and I’m afraid he failed it dismally. When Italy’s tactics became apparent, it was down to the captain to get his players together, and to work out what needed to be done – he didn’t do that. For 40 minutes England were effectively without on-field leadership, and for the players to have to go running to their coach for help can only be a damning indictment of the way the game is going.

Would other teams have done better faced with the Italian problem? That’s impossible to say, but I don’t think they would all have been so out of their depth.

I’m sure that Wales would have similarly struggled, as flexibility in the game plan is something they’ve failed to show in recent matches – once their plan A fails, they fall apart. I’ve got a hunch that the Scots would have worked it out more quickly as they seem to thrive on chaos, and I reckon the Irish would simply have resorted to pick and go, as much of their game is built on that. It’s also certain that the All Blacks would have demonstrated that they can think on their feet, and would have soon destroyed Italy.

In the end, of course, England got their bonus point win, but their first-half ineptitude will have set alarm bells ringing – if they’ve really got pretensions to be RWC winners they’ll need to show that they can solve problems on the fly.

Eddie Jones has got enough good players to make England a major force, but he quickly needs to find a leader who can think on his feet, and inspire the troops – on last Saturday’s showing, Dylan Hartley isn’t that man. A nother player talked about as a prospective Lions captain is AlunWyn Jones, and he, too, did his prospects no good during the Scotland v Wales game. A key error was the fiasco involving whether to kick to the corner, or go for goal, after a penalty was awarded. John Lacey was clearly heard to say that a shot had been called, but then changed his mind and allowed Wales to go for the corner.

The buck stops with Jones, and the thought of a shambles like that happening in the heat of a Test against the All Blacks isn’t good. Warren Gatland must be tearing his hair out as his captaincy candidates blot their copybooks!