England losing early leads and now losing their heads
England expects its rugby team to win, and if they can’t win, then to keep their heads and lose with grace.
These simple ideals have been spectacularly trashed in South Africa, and in the six days remaining of their summer tour the words and deeds of Eddie Jones, the head coach, and some of the country’s best-known players led by the captain, Owen Farrell, must be millimetre-perfect. Any more brainless blunders on the pitch or crabby, ill-judged reactions off it, and the bearers of the red rose risk returning home in a state of disgrace.
Even to the most even-handed observer, the grumpy, confrontational reactions by Jones and Ben Youngs, the England scrum-half, to routine media questioning after the 23-12, second-test loss in Bloemfontein on Saturday were jaw-dropping errors – Jones called a BBC interviewer “aggressive”; Youngs cut a Sky reporter short – made worse by their horrible synchronicity with cock-ups perpetrated during the match. These were led by Nathan Hughes slapping the ball from Faf de Klerk’s hands at the cost of a yellow card to England’s No 8 just as his team needed to launch a comeback from 11 points down with 11 minutes left.
It is difficult to know what was more astonishing: the crassness of Hughes’s act, or the casual flick of his hand in apology as he strolled off the field. Hughes rejected his native Fiji in order to earn a better living with England. Suffice to say, if there is a lesson in him and the more recent recruit Brad Shields being parachuted into the England back row, it is that someone else can take the jersey if he does not want it.
England had moved into a 12-point lead here after Mike Brown and Jonny May ran in fine tries but Duane Vermeulen stormed over to cut the deficit, before the home scrum won a penalty try and then the boot of Handre Pollard helped sweep the Springboks out of reach.
Jones, pictured below, was hired to bring a canny edge to a team who sank meekly out of their own World Cup in 2015. He won almost every match in his first two years, although the one-paced loss in Ireland in March 2017 raised a warning flag. Now there has been an almighty correction, with five straight Test losses since February this year.
New Zealand and Ireland are looking good with distinctive versions of focused ferocity. England have a shaky setpiece, a captain in Dylan Hartley out of action with concussion, and a constantly changing backroom operation about to alter again as defence coach Paul Gustard is taking a job with Harlequins. And Billy Vunipola has suffered yet another injury, so the totemic forward will miss this weekend’s final Test in Cape Town.
Is Jones’s position in danger? Be in no doubt, the Rugby Football Union values nothing as seriously as the saving of its corporate face. From chief executives and chairmen to coaches of high-performance and the grassroots, the governing body has a history of chucking people under the bus. Mishaps such as Jones’s business-conference comments on the Irish and Welsh last year – however jocularly they were intended – are more likely to see blood shed on the Twickenham carpet than to be brushed under it.
In a parallel universe this tour could be seen in a positive light. England had beaten the Springboks once in 13 meetings since 2006, when Jones’s team won 37-21 at Twickenham in November 2016, and three times in 13 in South Africa before this trip. They have scored seven tries at altitude in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein, and Jones has introduced, re-introduced or redeployed Elliot Daly, Danny Cipriani, Ben Spencer, Tom Curry, Shields and Luke Cowan-dickie. Some of the tries and attacking patterns have been things of beauty. But just as England have twice lost early leads, so Jones has lost control of the narrative. While he may feel it would be untrue to himself to moderate his spiky temper and language for the next few months, it would be wise. A shake-up in selection would be practical for Cape Town, with Cipriani given his head at stand-off, and embraced if he succeeds. A crystal-clear explanation of the approach to playing at altitude would be welcome.
And the squad needs to stick together and show some collective class. In one melee on Saturday, England’s tighthead prop Kyle Sinckler sauntered up and tossed the ball against the back of Duane Vermeulen’s head. Vermeulen is a gnarled, high-quality, 31-year-old doyen of the game, and he finished as man of the match. Sinckler, 25, has bags of potential, but he has accumulated seven metres in four carries across two Tests, and struggled in the scrum.
He and his club-mate Joe Marler, who apparently got involved in an argument with a Springbok supporter, need to realise that presenting an immature face will ultimately only be detrimental to themselves. They are playing sport for decent money in a football-dominated country. Life could be a damned sight worse.
There is form here. England went to New Zealand for the World Cup of 2011 amid an air of behavioural disarray and proceeded to fall apart, off the pitch and on it. With 15 months to go before Japan 2019 the time to see the light starts now.