Stuart Barnes says Stuart Lancaster's selection policy is under scrutiny after England's loss to South Africa
Monday 17 November 2014 23:33, UK
England were narrowly beaten by South Africa on the scoreboard but it was a gulf in terms of the two management teams, says Stuart Barnes.
England will make changes for the forthcoming game with Samoa. The Pacific Island team are struggling to find any form or rhythm. Off-field issues have distracted them to the point there has been talk of a player strike on the day of the England match.
Samoa’s players perform with pride; they feel they are not being treated with respect by their union. This small island has had an incredible impact on the world game out of all proportion to their size but financially they feel their union has treated them badly. The discrepancy between what the Samoan players will earn when they represent their country and the amount the English players receive is huge.
Having lost to Italy and beaten Canada unconvincingly, English supporters expect a substantial discrepancy on the scoreboard. It would be a huge surprise were England not to end their five-match losing run but a lesser shock if the Samoans find another couple of gears of performance against England at Twickenham.
Even so, the pressure is on England and Stuart Lancaster. In the wake of the South African defeat Lancaster is being quoted as saying there is no need to panic. In my Sunday Times column I suggested panic was a rather good idea.
Hijacked
The steady 'development of England' has been hijacked as much by the paucity of quality we have seen from the team in the last three games (remember they were hammered in Hamilton in the third Test in the summer) and the troubled issue of selection. England got their selection wrong. There is no objective proof either way or the other but the performances of Lancaster’s team in the last three games is as good an indication as you can get. A good selector is currently a muddled one and the results mirror the indecision.
Changes will be made for the Samoa game but the test of Stuart Lancaster’s nerve is what he does for the Australia.
Obviously this issue is highlighted nowhere more clearly than fly-half where Owen Farrell has been injured most of the season and rushed back in as if England could not do without him. The fact is that on Saturday they could do little with him as he and Danny Care backed up bad performances from the week before with even worse ones this time.
Changes will be made for the Samoa game but the test of Lancaster’s nerve is what he does for the Australia game. Having lost both games to date he will be desperate to beat Australia at the end of the month and will want to field a full-strength team.
The Samoa match can mask selection issues by claiming the need to see squad players perform (as Ireland did successfully against Georgia) but suddenly this game should be seen more as a trial than a chance for a few reserves to get some game time. Suddenly there is confusion as to what England’s best team is. The manager has to be more flexible and give men like George Ford both games, no matter how he performs on Saturday. It's not as if he has been against sticking with his regular out-of-form players.
Heyneke Meyer made five changes from the team that lost to Ireland but had beaten New Zealand recently, and those changes freshened up the team and won the game. England’s defeat was narrow on the scoreboard but it was a gulf in terms of the two management teams.
The bad news, the worst news, has been the heavy-handed feel in selection. The good news (although it is hard to use such words after five straight defeats – even against the world’s leading duo) is that this pack has the potential to be outstanding come the World Cup. The three-quarters are struggling but that is primarily a result of the half-back issue. Samoa will not prove anything either way but should be seen as the first half of a test of the England management, with Australia the second half.
Victory over the Wallabies will be expected. France beat them on Saturday night and there were large chunks of the game where France’s extra physical power and strength in the scrum dominated proceedings before a typical Australian (and English for that matter) comeback narrowed the margin.
England’s strengths remain the areas of Australian susceptibility. The Wallabies have a tough fortnight ahead of them and will be feeling their end-of-season bruises by the time they reach Twickenham. Lose under these circumstances and England look a team with little more than Six Nations aspirations.
Ruck Off Cancer
The pressure is squarely on England but to place everything in context, a group of rugby players will be riding and running to help tackle cancer in memory of a rugby player called Ashley Scrivens, who tragically lost his battle in August this year at just 25 years of age.
A 425-mile trek on bikes to 10 of the country’s Premiership clubs will culminate with a marathon on match-day Saturday, starting at the Stoop and finishing at Twickenham mid-afternoon before the Samoa kick-off that evening.
I bumped into Ashley’s father in a restaurant in Cirencester on Sunday. Nigel Scrivens was an old adversary from Gloucester in my playing days, a tough man and a decent man as Gloucester’s forwards always were. He didn’t ask me to mention `Ruck Off Cancer’ but with the young lads Ashley coached on a Sunday milling around after their game (they won) it seemed like an opportunity for the generations of rugby to unite in support and show some solidarity.
If you wish to donate to Cancer Research donations are gratefully received at www.justgiving.com/ruck-off-cancer or www.ruckoffcancer.co.uk.
Best wishes to the riders and runners and my thoughts to Nigel and his family.
Stuart answers your emails...
Got a question for Stuart? Email him at skysportsclub@bskyb.com, Tweet @SkySportsRugby #askskyrugby or use the feedback form below.
So the press are turning on Lancaster - led by chief witch-burner Sir Clive Woodward. Wouldn't it be nice if the press actually got behind Lancaster and supported him through this hectic time rather than score points against him? Woodward may have won the World Cup with England but he certainly did not develop the culture that Lancaster has brought to this team. Winning at all costs is NOT everything. It is also about pride, respect and honour. For those who are having a go at Lancaster, bore off! He took a damaged (not rubbish) England team from 2011 and made them a lot better than they are now so give him a chance! It's like Warren Gatland, yes there are many problems he has but you have to remember the state of Welsh rugby in 2007 and how he made the team better. You can judge them as much as you want but remember what they inherited. Mike Lewis
STUART REPLIES: Mike, the press is not `turning' on Lancaster. It is neither for nor against and the majority of the media has no agenda. The press is giving him a hard time because England are losing. When they were winning against bad teams playing bad rugby the majority were for him. The press box is different to any other part of a stadium because we go there to work, not support. Pride, respect and honour are all well and good but these are professionals and the vast population (and the press) judge them on results. There is certainly no witch hunt. Stuart has had a favourable press until recently.
Time to act now, Farrell has got to go back to his club and Ford has to start. Cipriani should also be brought in - he offers a lot more than Myler who will be found wanting at test match level. Dean Marshall
STUART REPLIES: Ford will start but he should have started last week and against Italy last season. As for DC, don't hold your breath. Absent from the Elite Squad, he will probably need an injury to find his way into the squad.
Just watched the highlights again. Still unsure what Lancaster sees in Dylan Hartley. He is a dirty player who lacks the skill of the southern hemisphere teams in not getting caught. At a time when England needed 15 men on the field, once again a rush of blood to the head gets him sin-binned. England will improve with him watching from the stands rather than being on the field. Richard Massey
STUART REPLIES: Richard, I don't dispute Hartley has discipline issues, although I would say that one man's stamp is another man's ruck. I thought the yellow card harsh and I thought his throwing was superb for a second week and for much of the match his handling was surer than any other Englishman on the field. I guess this email is just another reminder of what a subjective sport rugby is.
Hi Stuart, what team would you field against Samoa on Saturday and would it be the same team to face Australia a week later? Gavin Roberts
STUART REPLIES: Goode, Joseph, Barritt, Eastmond, May, Ford, Youngs; Mullan, Webber, Brookes, Attwood, Kruis, Haskell, Wood (c), Morgan, and NO.
Stuart, your comment that 'these things happen' when Steve Walsh failed to give the right call at the lineout (when Habana stepped out) is just not acceptable. This is Test match rugby for goodness sake and Walsh had ample time to look at the big screen and reverse the call. The fact that the incompetence of the touch judge and referee led to a try for England is just not right. These things should NOT happen in Test match rugby. AJ Fine
STUART REPLIES: AJ, the point I was trying to get over was that officials are humans and humans make mistakes. Of course such errors should not be made but they are and will continue to do so. It cost the Springboks a try but not the game. They should not happen, you are right, but they will and as the TMO is a matter of subjective opinion they will continue to do so. That is not to condone a bad error but Steve Walsh set out to create as much flow as he could. Given the two sides’ performance, had we a more pedantic referee this could have been an ugly game. Walsh had a good game despite the undoubted mistake. Like the rest of us he is human, my friend.
