Assistant coach Andy Farrell says England are trying to use a high-pressure defensive system to rattle their opposition.
Much has been made of the number of missed tackles in England's Six Nations win over France at Twickenham but Farrell insists that reading too much into statistics blurs the bigger picture.
England missed a whopping 21 tackles against les Bleus, including one by Courtney Lawes in the build-up to Wesley Fofana's try. While Farrell conceded that was a mistake, he believes the intention to pressurise the opposition is as important as the execution.
"Everyone goes off the missed tackle statistics. I look at it differently," said Farrell.
"I wouldn't want us to be a passive defensive side that back off and doesn't put pressure on the opposition. If you do that, there will be misses here and there.
"There is a difference between a glaring one-on-one missed tackle when you are isolated (like Lawes' on Fofana) and the team going, 'Let's go and get them'.
"If somebody like Courtney gets off the line and puts the fear of whatever into somebody's mind, the next time that guy is taking the ball up he is not thinking pretty thoughts.
"He is thinking, 'S***, where is Courtney Lawes?'.
"We are a side that likes to force errors on the opposition and make sure they realise it will be a physical, hard game. It is definitely part of our mantra. That is why we are hard to play against.
"We want to have a reputation that we are a force to be reckoned with as far as defence is concerned."
Farrell believes that England are building a reputation for striking fear into their opponents.
"If you ask most teams we have played against so far, they would back that up," he added.
"Building a reputation is massively important.
"Teams can already see the difference in what we are trying to do.
"There will be other implications we need to be mindful of along the way. No defensive system is unbreakable.
"Teams will play against us in a variety of ways and we have to be good enough to deal with all types of scenarios."
Comments
Waz4before says...
This makes sense, particularly with the "most hated player" Chris Ashton who is often first up in the line; the old management adage is "you get what you measure" so measuring missed tackles/acting on that measure will change behaviors - what Farrel is saying is they're going to do the opposite, at least for now as like all defensive system they get worked out so need to evolve season by season ..
Posted 03:31 06th March 2013
NHsaints says...
That's true, everyone was making alot of Lawes missing that tackle but as a 6 he shouldn't have been tracking out that far, the backs should have drifted allowing lawes to take the inside man as his (Bastareaud).
Posted 19:14 05th March 2013
ABlack says...
Using Lawes is not the best example but we get the point..... The All Blacks have used this tactic for years and then use brutal defense as a means of attack as they pick their moments to drive through the ruck and counter ruck etc.
The one thing noticeable this season is the amount of players further out in the defensive screen who are off side and not behind the hindmost feet at ruck, maul etc. The refs had a purge on this a couple of years back but it has crept back into the game again. Englands rush defence looks experimental to me but soemtimes it works , sometimes it dosnt it depends on the capability & reactions of the players doing the rushing and the support of the players close by.
Posted 18:23 05th March 2013
Jhamer25 says...
Haha oh yea i bet the likes of Vendetti, George North, Alex Cuthbert and Luke Mclean are all terrrified about making erros when they could be up agaisnt the worst defender in the tournament. Thats Chris Ashton if you didn't know.
He has missed the most tackles and that not me saying that it's statistics.
Oh and im pretty sure it was Courtney Lawes who also missed a tackle ot the Fofana try. And i bet Wesley wasn't scared of him.
Posted 18:08 05th March 2013