Rugby World Cup: Stuart Barnes gives his thoughts on England's exit
Monday 5 October 2015 18:57, UK
After England's early exit, Sky Sports' Stuart Barnes gives his 10 talking points from an exciting weekend of World Cup rugby...
1. The sky was still blue, the coffee shop around the corner was still open and the lovely Croatian owners were smiling as usual when I ordered my usual. All was well in this lucky little corner of the world as it had been 24 hours earlier.
But the front page of the Sunday Times screamed out that Saturday had happened and indeed it was no nightmare, England had crashed out of their own World Cup with a round of pool matches remaining.
Australia had crushed them just five or so miles from where I sipped my orange juice. A 20-point beating where last November England had beaten the Wallabies up front and on the scoreboard.
Back in November 2014 it was business as usual as the English scrum savaged the wobbly old Wallabies. Back then a young fly-half called George Ford pulled the strings quite beautifully.
In four years the [England] players have not developed the art of thinking under pressure, without which a World Cup cannot be won.
Eleven months on and Australia's scrum was tearing England to pieces and Ford had been relegated back to the bench. Australia are moving forward at the equivalent to the rugby speed of light while England are travelling backwards, frozen in the terror of a tournament that was too big for them.
Australia coach Michael Cheika is an operator of the highest class. He has proved it around the world, winning a Heineken Cup with Leinster and a Super Rugby title with his home team, the Waratahs.
There is no comparison with the England management that has lost its nerve and sent its players onto the field underprepared for what was to come. In four years the players have not developed the art of thinking under pressure, without which a World Cup cannot be won.
They failed to select the 'problem players' needed to give England the bite and expertise so sorely missing in the breakdown and set piece and they trusted in blind faith rather than the realities of form.
Four years ago, Lancaster began his regime with the right results but rotten performances against Scotland and Italy. Owen Farrell and Brad Barritt were alongside each other.
Against Australia the same pair played next to each other as England forgot the degrees of progress made in the last two years and found themselves back where they started, brave and toothless. The media was well managed and only a few of us argued against the interim management becoming the full-time one.
Now a few more eyes are open to the inexperience, the lack of expertise, the sheer callowness of England's management compared to Australia's, Wales', Japan's, Ireland's, the list goes on.
And yet it is no given that the management will be politely asked to make way, after this abject failure, after four failed attempts to win the Six Nations, after a record of three wins, 11 defeats and a draw against the Big Three. Where is the debate?
2. England's woe is Australian joy. At the Olympic Stadium I had the pleasure to bump into my old friend, the great Michael Lynagh. Mike was putting a brave face on the fact that he had fallen a little further down the pantheon of Australia's Twickenham greats.
He won a World Cup there in 1991 but even he could not compete with the startling quality of Bernard Foley's 28-point wonder performance. Running, kicking, scoring tries, scripting the whole evening, it was a privilege to see such an individual effort.
Now Foley has to find the consistency of Michael and Stephen Larkham - now the backs coach and doing as good a job as the more heralded Mario Ledesma is with the forwards. If Foley keeps playing like that, the Aussies' scrum keeps going and the back row terrorise opposition as they did the feeble English breakdown, let's just say the All Blacks are not going to hit them for 50 as they did so recently at Eden Park, should they meet again.
3. I witnessed a game where I was underwhelmed by the atmosphere and experience for the first time. On the day after England's demise I headed for the Olympic Stadium and Europe's flag bearers, Ireland.
Joe Schmidt's men did not ignite the crowd - which is too far away from the action - and the crowd unusually did not inspire their team. With England out, Ireland and their fanatical hordes of fans are now the quasi host nation but on the strength of this quarter-final qualifying effort against Italy, Ireland's fans will need some of that blind faith England invested in Sam Burgess if they are to go all the way.
I have not wavered in my belief Ireland would have a great tournament but this performance was a reminder that France, followed by either New Zealand or Argentina, is a formidable passage if they are to meet the semi-finals.
4. Argentina are more than a pack. Cordero and Imhoff combined to create and finish off the try of the tournament to date against Tonga.
Not only are they gathering as a force on the field, their large contingent of fans is the noisiest of all the supporter groups. Now that Diego Maradona is in our midst a miracle is possible. The South American supporters don't seem to think the World Cup is over now the hosts are gone.
5. The fans have been fantastic until now, English men, women and children have mixed with visitors to these shores. Keep the smile on the face folks, the game is greater than any one team. There is a massive amount of enjoyment to be had in the next month.
6. The unpaid volunteers are setting a magnificent example for the rest of us. On the first weekend there was one miserable so and so at Wembley but other than that these people who have offered their time to make the competition run so smoothly are the stars of the competition.
The ladies of the Twickenham media centre who provide sweets for myself and Stephen Jones on match days, take a deserved bow.
7. On the subject of smiles, did you see how happy Mamuka Gorgodze was to be announced as Man of the Match on Friday night as Georgia gave New Zealand a rough ride at Cardiff? Yes, the tournament is finally about the winning of it but there is so much more happening along the way. That's why it is a celebration of the game as well as the ultimate of rugby challenges.
8. Eddie Jones' dismantling of Samoa keeps him well in contention for the Stuart Barnes coach of the tournament award. I am sure Eddie will be thrilled. I expect Japan to beat a USA team that faces South Africa just four days earlier.
Five points beckon and an impressive tally of three wins. Should Samoa stir from their disappointing efforts to date, Japan may yet find their way into the last eight, although Scotland are the likelier contenders to face either Australia or Wales at Twickenham.
9. There has been lots of twittering, so I am told, about Billy Vunipola and his criticisms of the England management. Friends who were at one of these functions confirmed he indeed did criticise the management on various fronts, though the Saracens No 8 has denied the allegations.
It just goes to show, when a team does well, everyone in and outside the camp won't hear a word said against them, when they fail on the field the world and its wife will gun them down.
There will be more to come as this tightly-bound team unravel just as the much beleaguered Martin Johnson team did four years ago. You can do all the work in the world developing a team 'to be proud of' but it is and always will be about results.
10. As I sit here typing I see the first rainfall of the World Cup. It is not a metaphor linked to England's murky demise, it's just rain. The tournament has been a great success to date and it will continue to be so if you, the supporters, maintain all the energy and spirit you have offered up so far.
England is down and out but you, my rugby loving friends, are not.
