>> Hodgson: New Zealand would have hit Scots for 50
Ihave to admit I am still a little shell-shocked with what happened at Twickenham yesterday. If there was ever a moment to use the old cliché of ‘a game of two halves’, then this was it!
England looked exceptional in the first half. The timing was great in attack, all the players were contributing in a positive way and things just clicked. The interplay between the props in the build-up to Joe Launchbury’s try said it all and I have no doubt that the players felt unbelievably comfortable in the dressing room at half time.
There was a little part of me, however, that did question whether it was England being great or Scotland being woeful in defence. There were often times where the Scots were jumping out of line and gaps were appearing everywhere. Things looked so easy for England at times that it looked like an end of the week Captain’s practice.
I only wish I could have been a fly on the wall of the home and away dressing rooms at half time to hear what the respective coaches and players had to say.
I have tried hard to think about what could have happened in that interim which caused such a big shift in mentality in the second half, and the only thing I can think about is complacency. And when complacency gets involved, it is our emotions that take a hit. The effort isn’t quite the same, that willingness to work as hard as you usually do isn’t quite there, and that grip of the ball isn’t quite as strong as it usually is when carrying in to contact. It may not actually be major things, but if everyone does one thing differently or the energy level has dropped, then the impact can be huge.
It was certainly huge in the second half and when Scotland had scored two tries from uncharacteristic errors from Owen Farrell, you could see the shift in their demeanour. They knew they were in a fightback and England knew it too. The only problem was that England didn’t know how to sort the problem out. Their first loss at home against Scotland in over 30 years was unravelling before their eyes and it seemed like they were just waiting for someone else to fix the issue.
Scotland certainly looked a different beast in the second half. Finn Russell was very quiet by his standards in the first half, but he slowly imposed himself on the game. Those long passes which we saw in last year’s match at Murrayfield started to creep in, and he cleverly varied his kicking game to put England’s wingers in positions they didn’t want to be.
Jack Nowell and Jonny May are
incredible going forward but as good as they are, no winger wants to be running backwards to field short kicks that their opposite number is chasing after. The longer this went on, the more confident Russell grew, and his interception try gave his team an even bigger lift to take them towards what I thought would be a victory.
England should be commended for the way they eventually stopped the momentum and thankfully they managed to claw their way back to earn a draw. How they even got in to that position is the biggest question and only they will know that once they have dissected that second half. There will be plenty to learn from this and perhaps it has come at a crucial time of the year.
I would like to congratulate Ben Youngs on becoming the highest capped scrum-half for England. He has been central to this team for a while now and has steadily developed his all-round game. When he burst on to the scene, he was very much known for his running game and his ability to break the line and score tries. However, his hard work has obviously paid off because he is one of the first players to take responsibility to relieve pressure and some of his kicks during this tournament have been inch perfect. His combination with May has been a real shining light during the Six Nations and it seems he has that No. 9 shirt nailed down in the run up to the World Cup.
Looking ahead to the World Cup, there has to be a few question marks around some of the second half performances of England. England looked to be in control against Wales and came unstuck. Yesterday at Twickenham was one of the most one-sided first half performances we have seen for a while, yet for some reason, the wheels fell off and they almost lost the match. This has to be a concern for Eddie Jones, but he will be thankful that it happened during the Six Nations and not during the group stages in Japan. New Zealand are still clearly the best team around and I am sure that if they were in that position against Scotland, it would have been a 50-point margin.
England clearly have a great squad and the team has developed their technical ability hugely under Eddie Jones. However, Warren Gatland has spoken in the Press about whether this team has the mental ability to finish games off. Only the players will know if he has a point or not but given there aren’t that many more opportunities to get this right before the World Cup begins, I feel it will be the first thing to focus on moving forward.