Ben stars, but there’s still work to do
ENGLAND were far from perfect at Twickenham yesterday but it shows you how far this side have progressed under Eddie Jones that they put the Boks away with plenty to spare. There is so much more to come from this side and hopefully we will see that in the remaining three games this autumn.
The star for me was Ben Youngs who sparkled at scrum-half and gave the type of performance that has now seen him put clear daylight between himself, Danny Care and the other contenders.
Youngs is a major attacking threat in his own right and always plays at his best when he mixes his game up as he did yesterday.
Most of the time he contents himself feeding England’s big runners with nicely-timed and well-angled passes but when he is really buzzing Youngs can also take off on his own to devastating effect as Pieter-Steph du Toit will testify, I’m sure. Du Toit is a fine young lock — in fact he is South Africa’s player of the year — but he is no back-row forward and Youngs left him for dead with two sumptuous dummies which paved the way for tries by George Ford and Owen Farrell.
Both were beautifully clinical scores, deceptively easy, but that is what class players can do.
With Youngs cementing his place at scrum-half, England have the spine of the back division in place. Youngs, Ford, Farrell and Mike Brown.
Around that quartet Jones can look to make form calls or
experiment safe in the knowledge that the basic shape of his backline will not change.
So much so that early in the game we witnessed one of the best worked England tries in a long time. Exceptional teamwork and understanding resulted in a try in the corner for Jonny May who was making his return to Test rugby following injury.
The genesis of that try was wonderfully quick lineout ball which to my mind is the best setpiece possession in the game.
From that point onwards, Youngs and Ford linked and both Farrell and Elliot Daly were used as old fashioned decoy runners — as opposed to blockers — before Marland Yarde appeared at exactly the right time on a wide arc.
There was still a stack of work needed to get over the whitewash, though, and Yarde demonstrated his improving all-round game with a fine take and pass at speed before Brown took over. It was a classic two on one and Brown again passed at just the right time. When you have got the speed of May outside then you can use it and, despite a brave attempt by the covering Rudy Paige, May was in for a memorable score. We might not see a better try, technically, throughout the autumn.
There were other performances to enjoy, none more so than Joe Launchbury who was the official man of the match. I would have given Youngs the nod, but Launchbury was still right up there and it was great to see.
With South Africa opting not to contest all the line-outs, he immediately hit his stride at lineout time — he won nine in total — but it was his all-round game and rugby intelligence that again impressed.
Launchbury is a very considerable player and an important man going forward for England. A serious neck injury interrupted his career and while not fully at his best, Maro Itoje and George Kruis rose to prominence. But do not underestimate the Wasps man.
Launchbury will challenge Kruis and Itoje all the way for starting duties when the Six Nations campaign begins and England are very fortunate in having three such locks and, indeed Courtney Lawes, who showed up well at times yesterday.
Daly, making his first start at this level, played well. He belongs in Test rugby but it is a very tight call between him and Jonathan Joseph and those two outside centres are going to drive each other on for a good while yet.
There is still plenty to work on and it was good to hear captain Dylan Hartley and coach Jones acknowledge that immediately afterwards. Another busy week training at Pennyhill awaits. England are off the mark and I expect them to pick up the pace in the next three games.