England need to find some extra spice besides Curry
England pre-empted the start of March when they faced Wales last weekend, starting with a roar and finishing with a barely audible miaow. Yet again in the fixture at Twickenham, a healthy lead turned into a one-score game with the hosts delighted to kick the ball from the field of play and prompt the final whistle.
A turning point against Wales was that England played for the second half without their openside flanker, Tom Curry, who failed a head injury assessment during the break. With Sam Underhill and Lewis Ludlam injured, England were left without specialist cover in the position.
Their back row became made up of two No.8s, Alex Dombrandt and Sam Simmonds, the replacement for Curry, and skipper Courtney Lawes, a second row by upbringing. It left England without a natural forager, a player adept at knowing when to compete at the breakdown and force either a turnover or a penalty.
Dombrandt and Simmonds are both players whose strength is in possession and on their own ball England suffered. Whereas in the first half, especially the beginning of it, they had recycled the ball quickly, release became slower and slower, forcing Marcus Smith to operate behind the gainline.
With Wales not kicking to touch, and disrupting England’s throw at penalty lineouts, and the scrum a mess of resets and penalties, they succeeded in reducing the influence of Smith who found himself running down congested channels with few options either side of the outside-half. England’s running game was run out.
England won seven penalties at the breakdown in the first half, turning four of them into points from the tee, with Wales’ one coming just before the interval. It was different in the second period with England earning just two more compared to the six of Wales, helping the champions reduce a 17point deficit to four and they spent the final minutes of the match trying to fashion the winning try.
It was only the second time since August 2019 that England had gone into a Test without specialist openside cover. The other occasion was in Rome two weeks before when Simmonds and Ollie Chessum, who replaced Curry that afternoon, were among the replacements.
Ben Earl sat on the bench for 12 internationals after the opening round of the 2020 Six Nations, even though Curry and Underhill were in the majority of the starting lineups and Mark Wilson, Ludlam, Jack Willis, Lewis Ludlow and Ben Curry, last summer, were called up at various times. London Irish’s Tom Pearson has trained with the squad this year, with Jack Kenningham injured, and Willis, who plays across the back row, has resumed playing with Wasps after a knee injury ruled him out for 14 months.
Ireland on Saturday will pose a greater breakdown threat to Engcase land than Wales, although they will miss the injured prop Andrew Porter. Curry is expected to play after going through the return to play protocols: Ludlow was called up to train in his absence, but whether England’s head coach Eddie Jones has a back-up 7 on the bench will probably hinge on whether he opts for five forward replacements or the six he last went for against South Africa and Australia in the autumn.
“It is all about complementary skills and understanding, knowing what your roles are,” said the former England captain and No.8 Lawrence Dallaglio who won his first 12 caps on the openside. “You need ball-carriers in your team and guys who will win the breakdown. It is easy to reflect on what cover there was for Tom Curry, but you would like to think there is always cover in the back row. It is a
of needs must to find a way.”
Dallaglio said that the breakdown was about more than the back row. “What is also important is ball-carrying,” he said. “In the 2003 team, we had carriers in every area of the pack who challenged the advantage line and took the game to the opposition.
“I am not sure that is mirrored in today’s team and it does not allow them to play in the way they say they want to. It is not quite happening for them at the moment. They rely on a dominant set-piece but, as a massive England fan, what disappointed me against Wales was their lack of speed and urgency. I watched how the scrum set and they did not look to be the first and they seemed to take an age to get the ball into the lineout.
“You are playing your first game in the Six Nations at home in front of an excited, expectant crowd against a team, let’s be honest, who came to Twickenham with very little belief they would win. All their rhetoric in the build-up was excuse making. I was surprised England did not go for the jugular. Perhaps it was because they do not quite have the experience yet.”
England’s forwards coach Richard Cockerill admitted that none of England’s three performances this championship would be enough against an Ireland side that has lost only once in the last 13 months, against France in Paris last month.
“Ireland will be a step up from what we have played so far,” said Cockerill. “Parts of our game have been very good but we need to play like that for longer periods. We have started fast and quick and been aggressive but we have to keep that tempo for a whole game. We know that if we are to have a realistic opportunity of winning the tournament we have to up it in the next two matches.”
Ireland have won two of their last seven away matches, in Scotland and Italy, and their forwards coach Paul O’Connell is wary of opponents who in the autumn defeated South Africa. “England are bubbling and on the verge of a big performance,” he said. “We need to improve everywhere. One of the big things when we are away from home is just being calm. Everything needs to be just a bit more accurate.”
England have scored the bulk of their points in the second half of their matches only four times in their last 13 Tests. Ireland, in contrast, tend to be more prolific after the break, as they showed against the All Blacks last November when they scored 24 points to five in the second period having trailed 105 after the tIrst40 minutes. They surprised France in Paris, owning back from 22-7 down just after the interval to trail by a point before Les Stens rallied to edge home 30-29. The last time Ireland visited Twickenham was in the Autumn Nations Cup in 2020. England led 124 at half-time and Owen Farrell kicked two - penalties before Ireland scored a try late on. Eight months earlier in the Six Nations, England were 17-0 up at the break but lost the second half 12-7. "We put our-selves in a good position to go
“You need ballcarriers in your team and guys who will win the breakdown”
on and dominate, but we didn’t,” said Jones after the autumn match. “There is a lot more in us, which is pleasing.” It has become a recurrent theme but if England continue to fade in their final two matches, they will likely finish in the bottom half of the table again.
“As a fan I want to see England play with a bit more innovation and pace and really do something to get the fans on their feet,” said Dallaglio, left. “Last week, it was the first crowd in the Six Nations at Twickenham for two years. The players need to understand what the connection with the supporters really means.
“A number of people have said it and the evidence backs it up: there are two divisions in the Six Nations, perhaps three if you consider Italy on their own. You have Ireland and France and then come the rest who are a considerable way off them. England have to get the fans going on Saturday.”
England have lacked potency on the counter-attack, a contrast to the unbeaten leaders France who resembled New Zealand at Murrayfield in the way they were prepared to hand possession to Scotland rather than go through the phases and wait for a stray kick or a turnover before attacking.
France in their locust years of the 2010s tended to pick players out of position, especially at outside-half. When they were crushed 44-8 at Twickenham in 2019, they had a full-back on the wing and a centre on the wing. Only three of the starting line-up that day were in the 23 at Murrayfield, along with five replacements, including Antoine Dupont, now one of the world’s most influential players.
It is England who now have a preference for versatility. Max Malins has played more at fullback than on the wing this season for Saracens who see Elliot Daly as a wing rather than a centre while Henry Slade plays at outside centre for Exeter rather than 12. A feature of France under their head coach Fabien Galthie is how quickly they assume a shape in transition, but England’s support lines are less joined up and they
pose nowhere near as much of a threat.
“We work on attacking from turnover ball all the time in training,” said Galthie. “We want to make the most of the qualities of French rugby, particularly the ability to turn defence into attack as quickly as possible. In the difficult moments of the game against Scotland, our defence and our work at the breakdown helped to pick us up and push back the opponent. We battled at every ruck and even though everything was not perfect, it will do.”
France will find Wales less obliging in Cardiff on Friday night than Scotland were. The Scots trusted their attack, but they were missing five forwards and were sucked into the game Galthie’s team wanted to play. Wales are unlikely to run from their own half, at least unless they are chasing the game, and their kicks will be designed for chasers rather than provide a means for the likes of Dupont to run back.
It will be the moment of reckoning for France. Two years ago, they went to Scotland after winning their first three matches. They fought back after a slow start to lead 7-6 just before the interval when the prop Mohamed Haouas
was sent off for punching. They left without even a bonus point.
France on Thursday named a squad of 42 to prepare for the match in Cardiff. It included three backs who have returned from injury, Gabin Villiere, who scored three tries on the opening weekend against Italy, Teddy Thomas and Matthieu Jalibert.
England and Ireland will be rooting for Wales to throw open the title race and ensure there is no Grand Slam this year. Wayne Pivac’s side may not have the authority of old, missing the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric and George North, but they are tougher mentally than Scotland and their last two matches against France have ended in narrow defeats: the one in Paris last year at the death denied them the Grand Slam.
It is a significant weekend for Jones and his new England. Defeat would leave his side in danger of repeating last season’s finish of fifth place with France in Paris to come and selection will be key. Does he call on Joe Launchbury to grapple with Tadhg Beirne at the breakdown? Does he keep Courtney Lawes in the back row? Harry Randall or Ben Youngs at scrumhalf ? Pace on the wing or is the aerial threat posed by Ireland the primary factor?
Whatever, England will need to provide Marcus Smith with a better foundation than they did for the last 40 minutes against Wales and be more joined up in broken play. And they have to ensure that it is not only Curry who provides the spice.
“England will need to provide Smith with a better foundation than they did in the last 40”