England’s performance against Italy was definitely an improvement on the black comedy at Twickers the previous week, but if you are coming from the level of an omnishambles then an upward trajectory is really the only way to go. That said, they passed more, kicked less and consequently made the Red Rose side of the scoreboard work a lot harder. Whereas they had been at the thin end of the possessions wedge against Scotland, England placed themselves much further into the thick zone this Saturday. They also had more territory, gained more metres and made more clean breaks than the Azzurri but in the context of the final result you could say that these numbers were like an exit poll predicting a landslide when in fact what we actually got was a decent majority. Despite the seemingly dominant victory, did the scoreboard conceal a more complicated narrative and was this performance really the antidote to the malaise that infected the team in the opening round?
When you look at some of the other statistics a more interesting picture emerges. England clearly tried to run and pass the ball more but in doing so conceded more penalties and turnovers to Italy and perhaps crucially were also second in the offloading comparison. And although the kicks from hand were equal with 21 apiece what this doesn’t tell us is the nature and effectiveness of them. In that way all I remember is Garbisi literally playing into England’s hands by kicking deep to our back three and giving them ample opportunity to build their confidence and launch attacks. No, I think that England were lucky that they were playing an opponent whose kicking game was off beat but at the same time also failed to take full advantage of penalties that came their way.
The other aspect of England’s performance that was concealed by the bare statistics was the continued and specific lapses by certain individual players. Elliot Daly was good with ball in hand and scored a nice try but defensively and positionally he still doesn’t look like the best full back that England could have selected. Ironically, that person was on the wing and had a productive day. But that doesn’t gloss over the fact that sticking Watson at full back and replacing him with a specialist wing may have reaped even more rewards with the score differential. Jonny May was back to his hopping skipping best and scored a wonderfully innovative try which just proves what a complete nonsense it was last week not to get the ball out him as quickly as possible. So, despite the administering of fairly robust sticking plasters, if not inoculations, I still don’t think England completely eradicated the various ailments inflicted upon them by the Scots.
But the biggest failing was the predictable selection of Ben Youngs at scrum half. Predictable in the sense that it was always going to happen but also predictable in the sense of his performance. I’ve said it before and will say it again, I have nothing against him personally, but from a humble fan’s point of view, his pass is too slow, his decision making too hesitant and he just doesn’t appear to boss the show like a top level gnarly nine should. The fact that he was up against a 19 year old debutant who also happens to be third choice at his club, but who had more zip, more energy and better execution, just amplified this even more. And when it means that the form scrum half in the Premiership, Harry Randall, whose basic modus operandi is to light the blue touch paper and spark up a moribund performance, is in the squad but not on the bench then it goes beyond negligent and starts encroaching on criminal. Dan Robson deserves to start the next game for sure, but Randall needs to be blooded too if the campaign is to get properly back on track.
Ironically for such a positive result it felt like a no win. The changes made as a result of the Scotland performance just showed how bad that really was. England shouldn’t be using the Six Nations to learn on the job but rather they should be fine tuning a tried and tested winning game plan. If they do lose in a fair contest then they learn and tweak for the next challenge. No team has a right to win but when it comes to England, explaining a big loss as ‘a bad day at the office’ just isn’t good enough.
But selection and game plan have to be aligned and if you look at the progess of England through the lens of two specialist positions, full back and scrum half, then you feel that more adjustment is needed. Beating Italy was a minimum requirement. What happens against Wales, Ireland and France will now define the state of English rubgy.
Filthy Rig 