England are suffering from sound of silence

FOR ONCE, I find myself in complete agreement with Eddie Jones who suggested this week that the lack of crowds making for a less aggressive, emotional environment has been detrimental to England who always look to their pack for a highly-charged bullying performance.

Of course it’s the same for all the Six Nations but I fancy England, with comfortably the best home record of any team since the current format started in 2000, are struggling with the silence more than most. All crowds matter but some more than others, not least the occasionally maligned but ever supportive Twickenham faithful.

Some – and I would cite France – seem all the better for the lack of a raucous crowd. With the French, at least in the current stage of their development, what they need most is to dial down the emotion in a game, to reduce the flashpoints and just get on with the rugby at which they are distinctly useful.

I’ve always felt sympathy for French players appearing at the Stade de France where they have never been as invincible as they should have been. They start getting abuse well before half-time when things aren’t going well. What’s the point of playing at home if that’s all the support you get?

And that racket their supporters kick up even when their own kickers are lining up a big kick? Some individuals can handle it, others can’t. France are rather relishing the unusual training ground ambience but every team is different. You only have to look to cricket to appreciate that.

India are a dominating powerhouse team and they reacted brilliantly in Australia recently, coming back from a hammering in the first Test when they were bowled out for 36,to record an historic series win over the Aussies. Crowds of up to 30,000 were allowed during the Tests and with the Indian expat population flocking to the venues there was a great atmosphere.

A couple of weeks later the allconquering heroes returned to a sterile, empty stadium in Chennai and got taken to the cleaners by England and Joe Root.

Their volatile skipper Virat Kohil was quiet as a dormouse, a muted, diminished, figure yet six days later when a daily, noisy, crowd of 15,000 were allowed into the same Chennai stadium India were up on their toes again. And Kohli was giving England and the umpires hell again! And India won by 317 runs.