The Off Load: Rupert Cox's best and worst from the world of rugby
England looks for halves while France appear to have found theirs.
Tuesday 18 November 2014 10:21, UK
Rupert Cox shares his highlights from the week's rugby action in his round-up blog...
NO GLORY, BUT STILL SOME HOPE
"Time to press the panic button…” “Ponderous, disjointed, deservedly defeated…” “Heading into a tailspin..."
Imagine reading those headlines over your cereal on Sunday morning at Pennyhill Park. Clive Woodward, who coached England to 22 straight wins at Twickenham, said after England's loss to South Africa on Saturday that eventually, at some point, a team has to stop learning and “start winning”. The plain and simple truth is that this England team is not getting results, and that has to be taking its toll on players and coaches alike.
England's strength is clear: they have tight forwards, loads of them, who can mix it with the best – as they always have done. Line-out, scrum, driving maul – name a set piece and England excel at it. But that's where the good news ends. Against top flight opposition, such as that faced by England these last two weeks, the back row and inside back combinations have major question marks hanging over them. Billy Vunipola was captured on the Sky cameras shedding a tear during 'God Save the Queen' – good and rare to see an Englishman show that sort of genuine emotion – but the big number eight seemed unable to harness it in a positive way. Two glaring handling errors in the first half – Big Billy was second best to Duane Vermeulen in every facet, as he was to Kieran Read a week earlier. Try scorer against the Boks, Ben Morgan, has a great chance against Samoa this Saturday to stake a permanent claim. And more player woes: the Steffon Armitage debate just won't go away; and while at the end of this year’s Six Nations Chris Robshaw's position as open-side flanker and England captain looked a hundred per cent secure, that is no longer the case – is he truly the best Seven available to Stuart Lancaster? Tell you one thing, though: Tom Wood would look at home in any elite back row – I’ve never seen him have a bad game. He looks like A1 captain material to me.
To the backs, and Owen Farrell looks completely out of sorts – but the only people on Planet Earth who are oblivious to this are the England coaching staff. Is he the best fly-half in England? As my eight-year-old could tell you – no way, José. George Ford and Danny Cipriani are clearly better playmakers, and both deserve a chance. For non-rugby reasons Cipriani won't get one, but if George is their next best man then he must play both of the final two games of the Autumn Series. Danny Care hasn't had the best fortnight of his career, but would Ben Youngs have done any better? Hm, I’m not sure. Kyle Eastmond has been bright at times, but his pairing with Brad Barritt looks very stop-gap.
Chin up, though, all these issues ARE all solvable – ten months is enough time to find the right formula. I'm joining the feeling that at next year's World Cup England will play to their strength and just go big. Very big. Farrell, Burgess (or Barritt), Tuilagi, Burrell, Rokoduguni, Banahan. Smash, bash, and bash again.
PHILLIPE FINDS MAGIC POTION
Infuriatingly for England fans, a team heading fast in the opposite direction appears to be France. Phillipe Saint-Andre went thirty games without selecting the same starting fifteen – a staggering statistic – and sure enough the moment he does… they notch up back-to-back Test wins. In Camille Lopez France have a fly-half who can play AND kick goals. His coupling with scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde looks a keeper. And with Rory Kockott and Remi Tales coming off the bench, they have all bases covered. The other selection that has truly paid off is flying winger Teddy Thomas – his first half try against Australia was nothing short of incroyable. His defence needs some work, but as far as finishing goes he's a joy to watch. All in all it was an exhilarating test match in Paris. The Wallabies almost nicked it, but on balance France deserved the win. Cheika's Australia must be feeling it physically as they come to the end of a brutal 15-match schedule in the space of 6 months, and will do well to stay on the pace against Ireland and England. By contrast, Joe Schmidt's first XV had the weekend off (see Bouquet) so you've got to call it an advantage to Ireland in Dublin this weekend.
BRICKBAT
Emile N'tamack, the former Toulouse and France back, prompted loud debate when he suggested a cap on the amount of foreign-born players allowed to be selected for the national team. While his comments aren't directed at individual players (N'tamack himself played many tests for France alongside South African-born prop Pieter de Villiers and NZ-born centre Tony Marsh) he appears to believe the side, with South African-born Scott Spedding and Rory Kockott having earned call-ups to face Fiji and Australia, is in danger of not being truly “French”. This is myopic at best – the French Rugby President Pierre Camou got it dead right when he labelled it 'deeply troubling'. No one had a problem, he said, when Morrocan-born Abdelatif Benazzi captained Les Bleus to the 1995 World Cup. (Just as no one had a problem when Mike Catt played a key role for England in 2003.) Emile, the only questions you need worry about are these: are the players eligible? Are they good enough? If yes – end of.
BOUQUET
In Australian rugby league they look to Kate Moss for inspiration and describe legendary coaches as SuperCoaches – Parramatta's Jack Gibson, the Brisbane Bronco's Wayne Bennett, the Canberra Raiders' Tim Sheens. In rugby union you would speak of Rod McQueen, Clive Woodward, Jake White. The current Ireland coach has a way to go to before being considered a SuperCoach, but it's evidently clear that Joe Schmidt has the highest Rugby IQ in Europe. His tactics against the Springboks last week were a master-class, and in resting 13 players against Georgia on Sunday he gave valuable game time and four debuts to a host of fringe players. Ireland a dark horse for RWC2015? With Schmidt holding the reins – absolutely!
