>> Guscott: Both Eddie and England froze
I’ve said before there is no Plan B with this England side and we saw that yesterday in Cardiff – not that it would have made much difference once momentum had shifted to Wales in the second half. But it’s not all about having a Plan B, it’s just executing accurately what you are trying to do and England couldn’t do it. And even if they had switched to a possession-based game they were in that state of mind in the second half that they probably would have made mistakes carrying the ball.
A lot of rugby is about momentum and one of the best aspects of England’s first couple of games was about execution of a strategy. They were very accurate against Ireland and France and the decisions they made, they followed through.
The kicking game, whether it be long into space to turn the back three, or a high kick to compete, they were winning the battles. They were jumping up for balls and parrying it down for a colleague to pick it up. However, in this game, the first couple of kicks that went up weren’t as far as they would normally like and although an England player got to the ball it was parried down and a Welshman ended up with it.
That wasn’t disastrous because in that first 40 minutes England played the territory game so it wasn’t about possession and they managed to put pressure on Wales and squeeze them as they would have planned. But it lacked the precision from the opening rounds. They deservedly had the lead at halftime, but 10-3 should really have been at least 13-3, if not 17-3 with the opportunity they had in the last few minutes of the half.
Farrell’s kick-pass just on half-time over to the right was too long and it didn’t come off. Just to put it back into the pocket and go for a drop-goal would have shown the same level of execution they had in the previous two games.
While not having enough of a buffer going into the second half was not a massive factor in England’s defeat, Wales would have received a huge psychological boost from not conceding any points in that last couple of minutes.
For whatever reason, England then lost their way in the second half. Farrell’s overall kicking and execution was not as good as it has been so far in the Championship which compounded a poor ten-minute period in the second half that cost England. First George Kruis gave away a penalty, Manu Tuilagi, left, was penalised for grabbing Liam Williams around the throat after a fracas on the touchline, Kyle Sinckler hit Gareth Anscombe with a late tackle which only went unpunished because Jonny May had failed to release in the tackle a moment earlier. Sinckler was then penalised for a choke tackle on Alun Wyn Jones. Those were big moments for England and they shifted the momentum because in their current strategy they require control of the ball to put it in the opposition’s field.
Going into the game I thought I’d seen a real big change of attitude with this England side by not playing any rugby in their own half. They would make one or two plays before they kick it, chase, defend and put the pressure back on. With that strategy, it doesn’t matter if you make more tackles than the opposition as long as you’re doing it in their half – but I’m convinced the statistics will show England did a lot of tackling in their own half in Cardiff.
But you have to give huge credit to Wales – especially going through 34 phases of play for Cory Hill’s try before he smashed over after a relentless series of drives to give Wales the lead. Wales took on England through the middle where a lot of people thought they may struggle.
Gatland is a master in getting the result he needs in big games – he’s shown that on numerous occasions in the past with Wales and the Lions. He picked out Kyle Sinckler before the game and said the Quins prop needed to control his emotions. While Sinckler put in a mammoth defensive shift with 20-plus tackles, he wasn’t tired when he went off.
Instead he just wasn’t in the right state of mind to continue and had he stayed on any longer it would be a yellow card waiting to happen.
Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola had
excellent games but where was Tuilagi? The threat he posed in the opening game against Ireland just didn’t materialise – he had one good run and put in a couple of tackles – but a player who can have that kind of impact in the game needs double figure carries, or double figure big hits, or there’s no point having him there. That just didn’t happen.
I felt they were on the right track and to get bumped off like this will be very disappointing for Eddie Jones and his coaches. They weren’t in the game in the second half. It was taken away by the side who were in a lot more control. Wales kept their calm and comfortably kept the ball going through the phases and were the winners by a long stretch in the end.
The great sides have a number of players who under pressure in a cauldron of emotion like the Principality stand up. They are not boys they are men. They make the decisions that count and pull off the big plays to have an impact on the outcome of the game. Unfortunately there weren’t enough Currys or Vunipolas in that match for England.
“Great sides have players who stand up under pressure in such a cauldron of emotion”
Players with the best chance of changing the game are half-backs and if Eddie watches that game again I’m sure he’d want to change his and bring on Dan Robson who is a real hive of activity at 9, and George Ford who brings something different at 10. He didn’t make those calls and maybe he froze like England did in that second half and was bit numbed to make the changes that could make a difference.
That was a Grand Slam game for England – you can’t see them losing at home to either Italy or Scotland – that’s gone but the Championship is my no means over.
Wales still have to go to Scotland, who have performed very well at home over the last couple of seasons, and they play Ireland on the final weekend so they can’t get carried away. But Wales are on a great run with 12 unbeaten games and they should be rightly pleased to have beaten a side that were favourites going in in and are ahead of them in the world rugby rankings.
They performed under the pressure, and while England didn’t stop trying, they froze and were not accurate enough to give themselves a chance. Those mistakes in the second, when combined with poor discipline and a penalty count of 3-9 took them out of the game as they weren’t calm enough to keep their heads when they needed to.
Now they must regroup and get a bonus point win against Italy.