You have missed a big opportunity, Eddie!
ENGLAND missed out on the scoreboard in Cardiff yesterday but they missed a huge learning opportunity. What did they gain from the match? Not much. What did they learn from the match? Not much.
The whole point of these matches is to get yourself ready for what is to come at the World Cup but England are none the wiser about a few key things after this defeat, especially at 9 and 10.
When the World Cup is done and dusted no one will remember or care about the results of these warm-up games but Eddie might regret his failure to try out some of his options and it could come back to haunt him.
Eddie has already stated that George Ford will provide scrumhalf cover in Japan — he is only taking Ben Youngs and Willi Heinz as specialist 9s — and he had a glaring opportunity to test out his thinking at the Principality Stadium.
If Ford is going to have a stint at 9 in Japan, play him at 9 before we get there. If it costs you a warm-up game then it doesn’t matter, but it could come back to bite you if further down the line he has not had a run there. He and his group of players will be judged on the World Cup whether you like it or not. Definitely not on these games so that is why they should be used for experimenting with different combinations but England did not bother, which was puzzling.
Heinz went off for a Head Injury Assessment after 35 minutes so that would have been a perfect scenario for Ford to step in and show his hand. But no. Youngs came on before Heinz returned to action just after the break. Then when Heinz was replaced permanently
on 47 minutes it was Youngs who came back.
We know what Youngs can do, he has played nearly 90 Test matches for England, so why not give Ford a run for the last 30 minutes or so in the scrum-half berth to really test your thinking?
England have a very tough qualifying and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Ford might have to step in as a makeshift 9 even to make the knockout stages. It would also have been a great chance for Piers Francis to have a crack at playing 10 at Test level with Ford inside him. Who knows, it might happen at the World Cup so why not give it a try when, although wins in Cardiff are always great, the result does not matter in the great scheme of things?
Francis started at 12 yesterday but could have to act as a 10 in Japan with only Ford and Owen Farrell as specialist first receivers in the squad. Forget about the scoreboard, it would have been great to see how a Ford/Francis axis would have run.
When Francis came off he was replaced by Farrell at 12 before Farrell shifted to 10 when Ford was replaced by Manu Tuilagi. Farrell is a great player but like Youngs we know what he can do and this was not the World Cup final, or a Six Nations Grand Slam game, so it would have been better if Francis had slipped into 10 for a run out.
Earlier this week Eddie rightly said that these games don’t matter and they are a chance to run different things and that has been wasted although he still has more games against Ireland and Italy to come.
At least Jack Singleton got a few minutes as back row cover so that is one tick in the box for Eddie but I would have loved to have seen the Ford/Francis combination given at least half an hour.
On the other side of the world, in Auckland, it was business as usual for New Zealand and a wake-up call for the rest of the leading contenders for Japan. After losing to the Wallabies in Perth the rugby world was hoping there was a possible chink in this All Black team but yesterday Steve Hansen’s side handed the Australians a lesson at Eden Park winning 36-0. It was a real sit-up and say ‘wow’ moment. Make no mistake they are still the team to beat.
They were simply fantastic in very bad conditions. Sonny Bill Williams was back and Richie Mo’unga is a proper goal kicker and that counts for a lot in World Cups.
Not a great weekend for England but still plenty of time to make sure they arrive in Japan as a team nobody wants to play against.