Daly has much work to do to be World Cup full-back
ENGLAND’S World Cup chances may not have crashed and burned as a result of last weekend’s defeat in Cardiff, but they are damaged. It was not so much that England lost, as to the nature of the 21-13 defeat – and what it told us about the fault lines still present in the “leadership group” headed by captain Owen Farrell – which includes his scrum-half partner Ben Youngs – and also the coaching team led by Eddie Jones.
The idea that Jones has got a world champion outfit in the making took a bad mauling. The loss to a gritty, highly organised Welsh side was a reality check, and one that the England coach cannot ignore despite his mantra that it is only what happens in Japan six months from now that counts.
There are two recurrent themes that his old 2003 adversary Sir Clive Woodward regularly returns to when it comes to acid test matches – one is ‘T-CUP’ (Thinking Clearly Under Pressure) and the other is attention to detail in every area.
Jones’ England side failed on both counts in the Principality Stadium, and it cost them dearly. England were well placed at halftime with a 10-3 lead in a game that they knew beforehand would put them within touching distance of a Grand Slam, with Italy and Scotland to come at Twickenham – just as long as they got over the line.
They held the whip hand not just on the scoreboard after Tom Curry’s try, but because Wales had not looked like breaching their brutally efficient defensive line.
However, rather than tightening their grip in the second-half by going on the offensive, they let a side that were always going to redouble their efforts to unsettle them and gain momentum.
England were the architects of their own downfall because they stuck slavishly to a kick-chase tactical blueprint which had the law of diminishing returns written all over it. This gave Warren Gatland the chance to fire a psychological dart afterwards, and he hit the target, saying: “I look back on England in the last few years…when it’s mattered, I’ve questioned whether they can win these big games.”
Nice one Warren, especially with a possible Wales-England 2019 World Cup quarter-final on the cards.
But there is an important proviso. England are clearly capable of winning big games, because a month ago they overwhelmed an Ireland side who recently outplayed New Zealand – and a victory over the All Blacks is something that has eluded Gatland since he became Wales coach.
What is less convincing after the loss to Wales is whether an England side this inconsistent, and inflexible tactically, are capable of winning a series of big back-to-back matches in the way they did in 2016 under Jones, and in the way required of any side with true world champion ambitions.
The two key tacticians in any side are the 9-10 combination, and while Youngs and Farrell earned justified praise for the control and accuracy of their kicking game against Ireland and France, they were in the firing line here in every sense.
Neither of them appeared to have their tactical antenna working as Wales slowed the tempo, disrupting England’s rhythm, and their back three, with the outstanding Liam Williams in the vanguard, started to hoover-up kicks from the Red Rose half-backs.
These were meant to stretch them to breaking point, rather than simply hand them back the ball. Youngs was not helped by his footwork around the ruck, which in tight games frequently becomes more like that of a Test novice than a scrum-half winning his 83rd cap, and results in a slow, hesitant service. Nor were there any probing, darting runs around the fringes, which are the hallmark of the Leicester scrum-half when he is at his best.
The signs of a shortfall were there when England had Wales scrambling in defence at the end of the first half. A Jonny May chipand-chase saw them pushing for a second try, but the pressure point was lost early on in the move by a poor Youngs pass from a ruck five metres out.
After it bounced into the gap between Courtney Lawes and Ben Moon, it was left to Farrell to manufacture a rushed cross-kick for Jack Nowell on the right touchline, and although the Exeter wing deflected it infield it was snapped up by George North and kicked into touch to end the first half.
It was a momentumkiller which highlighted the Leicester 9’s regular habit of either delaying when fast delivery from the base is paramount, or taking too many steps before passing.
At the close-range line-out drive that preceded it, a number of Welsh forwards were on the wrong side as England made initial headway through Jamie George. Yet, rather than Youngs being the eyes and ears of the forwards, and steering the drive as backs arrived to join it – and telling the referee where there was illegal interference – he latched on at the side. Rudderless, the maul went to ground a few metres out, and a touchdown went begging.
These flaws in technique and execution were highlighted when Gatland’s outfit kept the ball for 34 phases before Cory Hill drilled over to give Wales the lead for the first time at 16-13, with 13 minutes remaining. It also re-emphasised why virtually every World Cup winning team has had a hugely influential scrum-half. Jones is very knowledgeable about two of them: he appointed the 1999 Wallaby World Cup winner George Gregan as Australia captain in their 2003 campaign under him, and as consultant coach to the 2007 Springbok world champions he worked closely with Fourie du Preez.
It is puzzling given that No.9 is such a tactical hub, and the need for depth and competition there, why Jones has been reluctant to give anyone but Youngs much game time over the last eight months, whether it was last summer in South Africa or during this Six Nations.
Dan Robson was consigned to a watching brief in the away series against the Springboks, and when the Wasps scrum-half finally got off the bench to win his first cap against France it was for just ten minutes. Given that Engand were in a virtually unassailable position, and that he could have had half an hour under his belt, it was a wasted opportunity.
Robson sat it out on the bench in Cardiff, just as he did in Dublin, but if he is expected to make a difference come the World Cup he needs more exposure at this level – and that should mean starts against Italy, and if he goes well, Scotland.
Another player crying out for more in the way of involvement is Manu Tuilagi, who was underst employed at centre again a Welsh midfield which at times looked vulnerable, with Hadleigh Parkes not the fastest centre on the lock.
Whatever the tactical directives coming from Jones in the coach’s dugout, both Farrell as stripper and
Youngs – who knows Tuilagi’s threat inside out having played with him for years at the Tigers – should have recognised he was intrinsic to their best plan B.
His carrying power could have given England an instant injection of urgency at the start of the second half, and with it a reminder to Wales that kick-chase was not the only weapon in England’s armoury. Instead, we had to wait until the 59th minute to see him blast outside Parkes for the one and only time in the match. Either side of that run Farrell and Youngs kept kicking the ball to Williams, who invariably returned it with interest.
This inability of England captains, or ‘leadership groups’, to read what has to be done on the pitch – and when to do it in order – is a potentially terminal flaw for any side with World Cup aspirations.
When Farrell said immediately after the match that his side “did not fire a shot” outside the first halfhour, it revealed his concern that the match was slipping away. The problem is he did not come up with a plan to remedy it. He continued to drop back and kick, thinking England could hold on despite their lead being whittled away.
That hold-what-we-have lack of ambition – which must have been endorsed by Jones – backfired badly as the late tries by Hill and Josh Adams clinched a Welsh win.
It was also at odds with the ‘seize the day’ mentality evident in the way England secured their first two wins of this Six Nations, with aggressive, precision attack.
Wales played their part in putting the brakes on England because their back three of Williams, Adams and North were well drilled in how to nullify their kick-chase barrage, and were assisted greatly by scrum-half Gareth Davies and a back row which consistently forced Farrell and Youngs into rushing their kicks.
It exposed not only England’s over-reliance on tactical kicking, but their inability to cope when Wales turned the tables on them after Dan Biggar came on at fly-half for Gareth Anscombe.
Biggar’s urgency contrasted with an uncharacteristically lacklustre display by Farrell, although there was never any sign that there would be a similar straight swap between him and George Ford. Like Robson, the Leicester playmaker did not even get a bit-part.
Elliot Daly’s positional shortcomings at full-back was reflected when, three minutes from time, he was caught in no man’s land by Biggar’s precision cross-kick.
Instead of using his own goal-line as his main range-finder and going forward to meet the kick and challenge Josh Adams in the air, Daly back-pedalled. Moving backwards makes it far harder to get lift-off.
When Daly jumped he went for the ball with only one arm. Adams, who had timed his run from the edge of the 22, sprang into the air just behind him, and using two hands got marginally higher, and, deflecting the ball forwards caught it on the full and grounded it over the line.
Daly’s positioning was faulty, and so was his jumping technique. This is no shock given that he has played full-back just nine times at Test level since Jones repositioned him there nine months ago.
If attention to detail wins big matches, allied to the ability to think clearly and adapt tactically when the heat is on, then England have plenty of ground to cover.
The challenge for Jones is how to turn up the heat on his players and get them to prove, starting with Italy, that they have got the message.