This is no warm-up, England
MAKE no mistake, England’s starting XV against Ireland this afternoon is the team inked in to play Fiji in the World Cup’s opening game. This is absolutely not just a warm-up match. This is a vital game for England and must be seen as preparing for Fiji in everything the team do on and off the pitch. This is the last opportunity to nail everything.
In 13 days England start a World Cup in which they will contest one of the toughest pools in the tournament’s 28-year history and must hit the ground running. They underperformed badly for the first hour in Paris last time out and it is unthinkable that England should go into a home World Cup off the back of two defeats.
England must also ignite the home crowd, who need reassurance after that defeat at the Stade de France when the pack simply failed to perform for most of the game. Once the fans truly believe in the team they can become the 16th man. This, more than any other game, is about now, today.
Meanwhile, Ireland, who comprehensively outplayed and out-thought England in the Six Nations, will be smarting after their home defeat by Wales last week and will arrive with exactly the same mindset. Their selection clearly states their intentions.
It should make for a great contest, although if they are honest both coaches would settle for a 6-3 win today. Winning momentum going into a World Cup is crucial, especially with the opening game England have been handed.
After the debate — some would say soap opera — about selection, it’s time to focus on how England are going to play and win the World Cup. Big decisions have been made and now it is about maximising their performance and producing a game plan to take on the world, or more importantly, Fiji. Everyone needs to focus on preparing for Fiji.
I do not see any real issues with today’s starting XV and would be mildly surprised if they did not line up against the Fijians. No 8 Ben Morgan needs match fitness after his broken leg and I would want to see him play a full 80 minutes. If he comes through well, I believe he will start ahead of Billy Vunipola.
Reading between the lines after the recent glowing references from the England coaches for Owen Farrell’s form in training, it is clear that there is a genuine battle behind the scenes for the starting spot at fly-half.
George Ford is the man
in possession, however, and had an outstanding Six Nations, bringing out the best in centre Jonathan Joseph and wing Anthony Watson in particular. Unless he has an especially poor game today he should start against Fiji.
One thought does occur. England must wear red against Fiji and have been drawn to use the away changing room. Depending on how the pools pan out, there is a chance they will be the away team at a Twickenham quarter or semi-final and have to use the away dressing room.
In which case, why trial run only part of that today? It’s good that England will use the away dressing room, but why not wear the red kit too and get the players and crowd used to it? When you talk about marginal gains, that is precisely the stuff you need to factor in.
Elsewhere, today’s England bench confuses me. I still consider rugby to be a 15-man game, not a 23-man game. You want all your best players on the field for 80 minutes and your tactics and physical conditioning should reflect that. I would not select anybody unless I believed he could play 80 minutes.
New Zealand never replace Richie McCaw or Kieran Read, Paul O’Connell never goes off for Ireland in the must-win games.
With all the lengthy Test match official breaks and time wasted setting scrums these days, getting through to the end of a game is certainly no more difficult than in days gone by.
Surely the huge fitness blocks the squads do, the special altitude camps and so on, are also designed to make this possible.
I am not a huge believer in impact subs. It can be a factor if a player is playing badly or, more importantly, you need to change tactics — as happened when I put Mike Catt on in the second half of our World Cup quarter-final against Wales in 2003.
But the primary role of the bench is always to replace injured players. Everybody on the bench should be capable, therefore, of coming on in the second minute if needed and playing the full match.
But I look at England’s bench and consider a couple of ‘ what if ’ scenarios.
What happens if Watson gets injured in the second minute? The three back replacements are Richard Wigglesworth, Farrell and Sam Burgess and, with the greatest respect, talented players that they are, none is equipped to play 80 minutes on the wing in a huge Test match. That leaves England badly exposed in what are must-win games. You could move Joseph to the wing and bring in Farrell or Burgess to centre, I hear some say. No way. Why would you move your No 1 strike-runner and your most natural try-scoring back out to the wing where his effectiveness and threat could be massively reduced?
And what about the back row, where the attrition rate is normally pretty high? If Chris Robshaw went off would you really bring on Vunipola at openside? Perhaps Burgess is ‘covering’ the back row but then again he might already be on replacing a back.
It does not quite add up for me and again I emphasise this is not an experimental warm-up match. This is a stand-alone, must-win clash of huge importance.