Match action
ENGLAND may not be going to the World Cup after kicking up a typhoon-force storm, but after making it three out of four warmup wins by scoring four second-half tries on Friday night they have the wind behind them.
Eddie Jones also hopes to have a clean bill of health when the squad arrives in Japan tomorrow despite ‘knocks’ which saw Joe Launchbury (back) go off just after the half-hour, and replacement tighthead Kyle Sinckler (ankle) and replacement hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie (knee) sidelined in the last ten minutes.
But Jones does not expect to have either of his long term wounded players, Mako Vunipola (hamstring) and Jack Nowell (appendicitis), fit for duty until the third or fourth Pool matches.
Even so, the England coach was nevertheless upbeat about his team’s chances after warm-up wins over Wales, Ireland and Italy, with the only reverse coming in the Welsh away leg.
However, while there can be cautious optimism about this England squad being in a much better place than Stuart Lancaster’s in 2015, there is still a quantum leap between that and them being good enough to become the second England side to win the World Cup.
Jones said that the Italy match was ideal preparation, mainly because their lacklustre first-half performance had demonstrated clearly to his players exactly what could happen in the tournament if they took their eye off the ball against Tier Two teams like their first two Pool opponents, Tonga and the USA. He added that he was pleased with the way England had regrouped and come through strongly after the break with tries from Ben Youngs, Joe Marchant, Ellis Genge and Anthony Watson.
However, the question that raises is why did they need any reminder from Italy? The fact they were held try-less by Italy reserves indicates that England go into this tournament not yet free from the handcuffs of inconsistency.
It is hard, for instance, to imagine New Zealand not having found a way to cross the Italian try-line before the break.
The question of whether Watson or Elliot Daly should start at full-back remains unresolved, with the Bath man not making an unanswerable case.
While Jonny May emphasised his importance to England, Joe Cokanasiga lit no fires in the Newcastle night in the half-hour he was on the pitch, while the debutant he replaced, Ruaridh McConnochie, for the most part remains an unknown quantity at Test level.
How best to deploy Owen Farrell and George Ford is another head-scratcher for Jones. Their old Ford 10, Farrell 12 combo gave England legs in the second-half, creating space where none existed before the break.
However, will we see Farrell move back to 10 when the big Pool matches and, hopefully, knock-out games come around in Japan? Jones appears to be playing it game by game rather than having the definitive plan of Farrell at fly-half as in the Six Nations.
Having kicked three penalties in the first-half Farrell missed a fourth attempt just after the restart. However, even though his chip through for May was thwarted by Jayden Hayward, and the Italian-Kiwi full-back also stopped Marchant on the opposite touchline, the England captain’s promptings paid off when a drive to the line by Kyle Sinckler saw Youngs dot the ball down.
When Farrell converted England led 16-0, and a few minutes later they increased their lead as a sharp attacking move from a Billy Vunipola pick-up from the base of an England scrum 30 metres out paid off.
The No.8 shipped the ball as Youngs was changing gear, and his pace added to the injection added by Marchant hitting the gap at full speed to leave a posse of blue-shirted defenders in his wake as he scored between the posts.
Farrell added the extras to give England a 23-0 cushion with just under a half hour left, and they wore down the dogged Azzurri defence when Genge was shunted over from a close range lineout drive.
Another Farrell conversion made it 30-0 with barely ten minutes left to play, but a minute after Anthony Watson, Marchant and Joe Cokanasiga had crabbed across to spike each others’ guns, a quick-passing move saw England score again.
Willi Heinz’s crisp pass saw Ford and Farrell combine before the skipper’s perfectly-timed pass sent Watson spearing through the gap – and then converting.
Jones has mentioned during this World Cup warmup period that he likes to leave England a little short of tactical preparation, with the view of not only keeping his players’ feet on the ground but also making them think their own way through any rough patches they hit.
Given the catatonic second-half display against Scotland a few months ago the England coach leaving his players to their own devices to develop initiative in these warm-up Tests is not the worst idea.
At the end of a scrappy first-half in which a second string Italy side gave as good as it got against an England line-up featuring seven players who are first-string starters, there was a sense that the experiment was not working.
The seemless linking between backs and forwards that was a hallmark of the dismantling of Ireland had vanished and been replaced by something far more disjointed.
As England meandered towards the half-time break the match announcer exhorted the 50,000 plus crowd “Let’s hear that North-East roar!”. The crowd made a decent attempt but the reality was England had not not been able to shake off Italy – and rather than roaring they were coasting in neutral.
The upshot was that although Farrell put England ahead with an early penalty it was Italy who came closest to scoring when Edoardo Padovani gave Tommaso Benvenuti a sniff of the line, only for the centre to lose the ball just before going over as May made contact.
May was conspicuous for his work rate in seeking out the ball up the middle as well as on the flanks, and Jamie George showcased his handling skills by threading a pass through a forest of Italian arms to Watson.
However, those were the high points of a lacklustre first-half England display, while the Italian reserves were buoyed by a high octane effort from their hard-carrying back row of Sebastian Negri, a former Hartpury College captain, Abraham Steyn, a former Junior Springbok, and former North Harbour No.8 Jimmy Tuivaiti.
The consolation for England is that even when they are misfiring they can still rely on the boot of Farrell to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
The Red Rose captain obliged this time by adding a second penalty midway through the half and another on the stroke of half-time to give his side a 9-0 lead at the interval.
The way they were transformed from their stuttering first-half perfromance to a coherent attacking force after the interval showed that at their best England are handful for any team.
However, if they are to fulfil their own dreams, and those of England fans, to become world champions again at this Japanese World Cup, only their best will do.