SIX NATIONS SPECIAL
Sir Clive Woodward on the wet weather kings
THE highlights reel from that game will be brief but as a former England coach who has lost in filthy conditions at Murrayfield I can assure you victory will feel sweet. From the depths of despair in Paris last week, England can now relaunch their Six Nations campaign in earnest against Ireland in two weeks.
If England had lost last night it would have been a very tense couple of weeks building up to the Irish game. Now there will be a spring in their step and although Ireland are going well, England, with two impressive wins over them last season, will fancy their chances. It is all to play for again.
Winning in Edinburgh is never easy and winning in the rain and wind can be doubly difficult, but save for a dodgy period in the third quarter, England did a very decent job. On such days you do what is required, bank the points and move on.
It was a very old-fashioned game and you could argue the modern player struggles to adapt to such conditions, but England kept their cool and I felt their body language and energy were better right from the off.
It was a better selected team as well, this was the kind of match and day you needed a Mako Vunipola and George Kruis crashing into the opposition and big units like Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury coming off the bench.
The England standouts, though, were Sam Underhill, Tom Curry and Ellis Genge, who impresses me every time I watch him.
Underhill was a dog on the floor, throwing himself on the turf to win every 50- 50 ball and Curry was very effective around the field, carrying well and pulling off a couple of trademark channels. As for Genge, I am not a huge fan of the term ‘ impact players’ and positively dislike the phrase ‘finisher’, but I will concede that Genge never fails to raise the intensity and leave his imprint on the game when he comes off the bench. He really is a bundle of energy and although quite fiery he is beginning to rein it in to good effect.
The Leicester prop did very well indeed to force his way through the Scots’ defensive line and get England’s solitary try. On a wet, slippery night when it would be easy to lose possession, sion, he cleverly tucked the he ball in and shielded it t from disruptive opposition hands when he took the first contact and then, having taken the big hits, reached out for the try.
They were proper r Test match skills he displayed there, as valid and dangerous as backs ks sidestepping and passing out wide on a drier day.
Although not a spectacle that will live in the memory, it was fascinating to watch how the modern-day player copes with such extreme conditions.
Let’s be quite clear, windy, wet weather is very difficult, but rugby is and must always be an outdoor sport and it’s how you adapt on the hoof and handle it that counts. On this occasion it was forecast well in advance and both sides had plenty of time to prepare which helps. When we lost at Murrayfield in 2000 a savage winter storm — in April — arrived unexpectedly soon after half-time and we didn’t make the mental switch to playing bad weather rugby soon enough. For me, England played it better into the elements in the first half yesterday, although it took a while to appreciate that the wind was full full-on on down d one touchline and n not so bad on the oth other so there was a hu huge variation in how f far clearing kicks m might go. They made the necessary adaptation and started pushing the k kick lower and on t the angle which is w where Scotland fell dow down a little. Scot Scotland, with the elements ments, d didn’t do so well. When you have a big wind behind you the temptation always is to use it to kick long but that can backfire. The wind takes it too long, or directly into touch or gives the defence too much time to field it. Other than when you are forced to make a straightforward defensive clearance, it’s a much better policy to dink it through with a grubber or especially when the ball is wet and slippery as well. What it needed was the old Scotland kick and rush from decades past. ‘Feet Scotland, feet Scotland’ as the old cry used to go up.
After the break, for the first 20 minutes or so, England started repeating Scotland’s mistakes of the first half. Long kick after long kick went straight into touch.
Too greedy. Willi Heinz twice, George Ford, Elliot Daly, they just didn’t learn. You can’t just let the elements do the work, you have to navigate your way through the conditions.
Then, finally, England made the switch in mindset and immediately looked more composed making the Scotland back three play which put them under pressure. Then Ford produced that nudge through that had Stuart Hogg in all sorts of difficulties, and from the resulting scrum and build- up of pressure Genge powered his way over
England were finally back on an even keel and were good value for their win. Scotland just made too many mistakes and are now under real pressure as they look towards Italy in Rome, a must-win for both sides.