DON’T DESPAIR ENGLAND – YOU’RE STILL THE BEST!
Before the echo of the final whistle in Auckland had faded, Steve Rider turned to his ITV studio panel and asked: “England as a squad of players, are better than that, aren’t they?”
Errr…no, they aren’t actually, replied the three former international forwards, Sean Fitzpatrick, Francois Pienaar and even Lawrence Dallaglio.
For Fitzpatrick, the breakdown was the real issue. “England turned over too much ball. It cost them any momentum that they had managed to build throughout the game.”
Pienaar put England’s failure to progress down to a lack of leadership. “When England conceded the two first half tries there was no one there to say: ‘Right – this is what we have to do for the next five minutes. We need to get down there and get three points on the board.’”
At the post-match interview, Johnson appeared surprisingly calm: “I thought when we had the ball we looked ok.” Ok? Ok is the word you use when you want to let a waiter know that the over-priced meal you have just eaten wasn’t quite bad enough to be sent back. Which, in a way was quite accurate - England did look ok with the ball – before, like an unacceptable meal, they coughed it up.But without the ball, England were even worse. Turned over at the lineout, out-played at the scrum, naïve at the breakdown, but worst of all, woeful in defence.
Médard’s try summed it up: three players were drawn onto Palisson, leaving no one at home on the till for the fullback to cash in on a simple inside ball.
I didn’t quite get Vickery’s analogy of the England defence being akin to a Tesco’s checkout. I’ve certainly never walked through one with my shopping as easily as the French walked through weak-shouldered English tackles. Maybe Vickery was surprised that Cueto, Foden and Ashton didn’t ask the dominant French backs if they’d like a hand with their packing?
There were a couple of sub-plots in this game to keep it alive and suggest that a French lead of 16-0 at the break didn’t stamp the game as a dead rubber.
Quite why Lievremont took Yachvili off, heaven knows. And why Johnson replaced Croft with Lawes at 6 to allow the magnificent Harinordoquy free rein from the base of the scrum is equally unfathomable. Laws has never played there at international level and it showed.
How bad were England and how good were France? The only player in an England shirt who played with any real passion was Manu Tuilagi, who was a handful for the French, before they shut him down in the second half. Tuilagi was outstanding in both attack and defence, looking as if he relished the contest as much Deacon looked as if he didn’t.
Sure, Foden’s try gave England a glimmer of hope, but one always felt that the French were only as good as they had to be and no more. When Cueto laboriously grounded the ball with five minutes to go and Flood missed a simple conversion, it became clear how badly Johnson would love to let Wilkinson and Flood to share a shirt.
Trinh-Duc replaced Morgan Parra at 10 and he applied his own unique tools to something that didn’t really need fixing. However, his two early touch-finding wipers checked England’s back three and freed up more space in the midfield for Rougerie and Mermoz to exploit. It was a substitution that would have worked better if Lievremont had left Yachvili on.
But had Yachvili kicked the two conversions and a straightforward first half penalty, and France not butchered two second half chances, the margin of victory would have been embarrassing. Perhaps Johnson knew this and his post-match demeanour reflected an acknowledgment that England had got off lightly.
Maybe losing by seven points to a side that dominated every phase of the game wasn’t so bad after all. And their discipline was better: they only conceded five penalties, none of which were converted.
I’ll leave the last word to Johnson: “Only one team goes away from the World Cup smiling and that is the team who wins it.”
And that team, for my money will still be France. For sure, they will have to be better than they were today to beat New Zealand or Australia, but the gears are there, and they will go up them.
For France, the World Cup is only about the knockout stages. For England it is only about the journey home and mis-placed reflection on how good that could have been.
England - Player Rating /10:
15 Ben Foden 5 – took his try well, but defensively weak and nowhere under the high ball.
14 Chris Ashton 4 – poor defence once again exposed. No swan diving tonight, and what happened to that player who used to go ball hunting?
13 Manu Tuilagi 9 – England’s only hope of a line break – until France closed him down early in the second half. No plan B.
12 Toby Flood 6 – asked questions of the French defence when moved to 10, but why was he at 12 in the first place?
11 Mark Cueto 4 – another one who must look at the team sheet and wonder why his name’s still on it? Made an absolute meal of his try.
10 Jonny Wilkinson 4 – one of his worst games in an England shirt. May have two feet but only has one hand, which makes a talentless midfield look even worse than it is.
9 Ben Youngs 6 – a promising player, but lacks pace and made it easy for the French back row.
8 Nick Easter 8 – Engand’s second - best player; cleaned up the mess left by a beaten English scrum.
7 Lewis Moody (capt) 6 – ineffective, but did slow French ball down on occasions early in the piece.
6 Tom Croft 6 – a force in the lineout, ineffective at the breakdown
5 Tom Palmer 5 - ditto
4 Louis Deacon 2 – he must keep asking the question I do – “why, in the name of Zeus, do they keep picking me?”
3 Dan Cole 3 – great beard – failed to out-tickle his opponent at scrum time; continues to give away needless penalties.
2 Steve Thompson 4 – There must be a better 1st choice hooker.
1 Matt Stevens 3 – ditto for prop
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley (5) 17 Alex Corbisiero (6)
18 Courtney Lawes (5 – but should never have been put at 6)
19 Simon Shaw (7 – should have been on there from the start instead of Deacon)
20 James Haskell (6 - Should have been on from the start instead of Croft)
21 Richard Wigglesworth (6)
22 Matt Banahan (4 – if he absolutely has to be selected, it should be in the 2nd row).
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