Under Pressure: Stuart Lancaster
England's chances of being amongst the top seeds for the 2015 World Cup on home soil are looking unlikely as they look to regroup from defeat to Australia ahead of Tests against the last two world champions.
England's 20-14 loss to the Wallabies is set to have a long-term impact as it means Stuart Lancaster's men, currently fifth in the world rankings, have lost ground to France, who will aim to cement their place as the top-ranked European team against Samoa next weekend.
Lancaster insisted a week was long enough for his side to up their game as the Springboks, fresh from a 21-10 victory over Scotland, arrive at Twickenham this coming Saturday with world champions New Zealand at 'HQ' on December 1.
The England coach refused to question his players' decision-making after captain Chris Robshaw ignored four opportunities to kick for goal as England sought the try that would have turned the match around.
Winger Chris Ashton supported his skipper's decisions, but said England were simply not sharp enough.
"I think we cost ourselves the game," said the Saracens wing.
"We had enough possession in their 22 and we just didn't take our chances. I think the right decisions were made from those penalties. I thought we had them but we just couldn't find that finishing pass.
"Toby Flood tried to find me through the back and if the pass had gone to hand, I would have been through a hole. And then Thomas Waldrom dropped the ball over the line.
"You have to take your chances. Our attack was better (than in last weekend's 54-12 win over Fiji), but we are lacking that clinical edge.
"We put ourselves in a position to win that game and that was the frustrating thing."
2003 World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward said Lancaster had not prepared his side sufficiently for the game.
"The biggest thing is trying to be smart ahead of the game," Woodward told BBC Radio Five Live.
"If you sat down on a Thursday night and gave the players the situation -- you are 20-14 down with 22 minutes to go, you have a penalty, the ball is slow, what do you do? -- the right decision is to kick for goal and reduce the points to just three.
"If you go for the line-out or go for the try, you have to score, and if you don't, you give huge momentum to the defending team; in this case Australia.
"The key thing is not making decisions in the heat of battle -- it is getting these things in players' heads before you go on the pitch, so you know what is going to happen in every single situation. That is the secret to coaching."
Under Lancaster, England have yet to beat one of the old Tri-Nations in four matches, with this loss following two defeats and a draw away to South Africa earlier this year.
"They are the lessons we have to learn for South Africa next week," said Lancaster
"Every game's a new game. You learn, review and move on.
"We have got to be better. Australia proved in their 18-18 draw with New Zealand they can put out a performance at the top end and they have done that.
"We'll look at the tape and talk it through, train and learn our lessons."
England captain Robshaw explained that defeat was a bitter pill to swallow.
"We talked about coming out of the traps in the first 20 and we talked about precision and the final pass, yet these were the two areas where again we let ourselves down," said Robshaw.
"We were conscious of Australia's intention to disrupt our ruck platform and at half time we made a decision to throw more numbers into securing the ball in the loose. However, games like this are won on the slimmest of margins and we will spend a lot of time looking at the tape to see how we can close those narrow gaps."
England's game in recent years has relied upon dominance in the set piece. Utilizing brain rather than brawn, the Australians, for once, achieved parity in the scrum.
However, England's tighthead, Dan Cole, was angry at England's inability to apply their perceived superiority.
"Australia are one of those sides that will leave you scratching your head at their scrum tactics," said Cole.
"We are aware that in a straight scrummage battle, we have the strength to come out on top. However the Australian front row are very streetwise; the first scrum they pulled away at the hit and at subsequent scrums were looking to go low and collapse in at the loose head side.
"We were aware before the game that this would be their approach yet we failed to combat it which is very frustrating, especially for me personally."
Comments
craigsman says...
Kiwilad - the rfu was formed in 1870 and was at least on of the first (if not the first ) union. It also acted as the international union prior to the set up of the IRB. Sooo ... what's wrong with name again? Or should the name be changed to appease you?
Posted 21:11 19th November 2012
APV1 says...
@ kiwilad - is the name "RFU" more arrogant than "Super Rugby" or "The Rugby Championship"..?
Posted 17:45 19th November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
If Lancaster wants a scary senario to discuss with his players on thursday night then how about the back line playing as flat as they have in the last fortnight against what is generally regarded as the best blitz defence in the world. Catt has reallign our backs or Jean De villiers is going to be mulching white jerseys all afternoon. I watched Newport Gwent Dragons vs Northampton on Sunday and The dragons allignment in attack made me embarrised of England's effort. The warning signs were there vs Fiji. Australia made hay. SA will destroy us if we done get this sorted out NOW.
Posted 13:19 19th November 2012
melkdave says...
Wow lot of sad posts today.Lets be reasonable ,We lost to a streetwise battle hasrdened Australia ,with a inexperianced young green team.Just compare the amount of players with 5 or less caps in each teams starting XV Australia 2 -England 6 including 2/3rds of the frontrow 1/3 of the backrow and 1/2 the 2nd row,the FB and one wing.And it didnt get any better cap wise with the replacments eitherAll the front row. replacements the other half of the 2nd row ect ect.England are still very much in the building stage ,and lets see what player A offers over player B ect,My god it hasnt even been a year yet under SL and co,and some fans are execting miracles already.Even with the above facts ,we almost beat the 3 rd ranked team in the world,Did we make mistakes you bet,was are handling fantastic no,did we progress in that match no ,but then we ddnt really take a a step backwards either.Apart from Mahlar having a shocker getting a bind ,the scrum was actually ok,and would have dominated if Mahlar could find his binds.Thats not saying work doesnt need to be done there though,it does,and GR wont be happy at all.Nor will AF and MC Australia caused us alot of problems ,and taticial outhought us and handling /ball retention was poor ..But progress is being made as to finding players who can play at the top leval,and offer something toEngland imo.Does alot more need to be done you bet ,but the mid term goal is wining BILL in2015 ,while long term its staying consistantly in the top3 IRB ranked nations and very long term sbeing and staying as the number one nation ala NZ now.
Posted 12:28 19th November 2012
Philly says...
Having a strong is wasted ammunition if the decisions backfire and your backs don't have a clue what to do with the ball.....
Posted 11:28 19th November 2012
Jeff says...
England are in for a rude awakening this weekend against the Springboks.
The Boks might be predictable at the moment but no team in the world has a stronger pack right now. If England don't front up...game over. The Boks easily decimated the fragile wallaby pack and gave them a hiding.
Robshaw will surely not kick for lineouts again...especially not this coming weekend. The Springboks loose trio is outstanding and their lineout is very good, watch out for Etzebeth. If england can't get any sort of dominance in the scrums its gonna be tough to win.
Posted 11:15 19th November 2012
PREEST says...
I think the English can beat SA. SA haven't exactly been impressive on their tour so far. A narrow win over Ireland and then an unconvincing performance against Scotland. The intercept try was lucky, and only helped to flatter the scoreline towards the boks.
England should target this game. The boks are out of form.
The ABs however, should get past England with relatively no discomfort.
Posted 10:01 19th November 2012
rugbyphile says...
Almost everyone knows the Wallaby/Waratah scrum tactics (except some refs)--step back a little on the engage, turn inwards and hope your opponent misses the bind. But the England props showed no understanding of the need to get the bind.
Not seen Marler before and he seemed to have done something to his knee--but he was below standard and must surely go?
Posted 09:40 19th November 2012
Propmelsey says...
England played & looked like fifteen fools ..... Was pretty obvious that our 11 to 15 weren't going to set twickenham on fire, but to see the pack struggling aswell was a bit of a surprise ...... with a bit more composure from a captain i still think we would have won though .... onwards & upwards :) x
Posted 07:40 19th November 2012
three6three6 says...
Nothing much has changed then has it since 2003.... when the Wallabies were hiding their inability to scrummage by continually collapsing the scrum. England probably made a tactical error by not picking their best scrummaging front row. If this had meant recalling Andrew Sheridan..... well this would have been worthwhile!
Posted 03:55 19th November 2012
BDAUSSIE says...
I think Australian fans just have to get use to the fact that no matter how well we perform in the scrum, Northern Hemisphere players/fans/coaches will percieve us as having a weak scrum.
I like Dan Cole's comments after being dominated for the majority of the match at scrum time, all he can say is that we were "street wise" at scrum time and that England still have the better scrum.
Seriously this is becoming a joke. Anyone who follows the Super 15 will know that the Australia possess a number of competent scumming props, and that the Waratahs generally have one of the strongest scrums in the comp. They'd also know that the Wallabies have a big pack that outwieghs most forward packs. The wallabies have gained parity (or better) against the Boks, Blacks, Pumas, England and Wales this year. Despite all this all Dan Cole can do is suggest that we have somehow bamboozled the ref in to thinking we're competitive.
Give yourself an uppercut!
Posted 03:26 19th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Perhaps NOW the arrogant chaps at The Rugby Union, (how arrogant is that?) will look at the policy of importing players x every other Country rather than nurturing their own.
Australia need to look at it as well.
Posted 22:21 18th November 2012
RoseTiger says...
??and deservedly so.
I am a big England fan and I admire what SL has done so far.
However ? ?Regal Purple? to celebrate the royalty of English Rugby. It makes me see red, let alone a bunch of Ozzies wanting to prove something. Will the RFU Marketing department (opposite the stadium next to Tesco?s) never learn!!!!! England play in white, or red.
Robshaw is wrong. I don?t care if it is a friendly ? winning is everything. Join The Lib Dems if you think otherwise. Kick your points.
The Ozzies were smarter, more streetwise, more battle hardened than our na? bunch.
Good luck to them. They don?t believe their own hype.
Posted 22:14 18th November 2012
alanatleeds says...
Clive Woodward is a 20/20 hindsight merchant who seems set on undermining anyone who succeeds him. His comments are not helping the England cause and I question his motives.
Posted 21:52 18th November 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
And the purple shirt. There is pride in the white shirt. Watch a few replays of games in white and you realise what the hell!! was that a joke? A friendly? Purple and gold. What is English about that? National pride??!
Posted 21:47 18th November 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
If Rowntree can't coach Cole against these known Oz tactics get Leonard in. The first scum they engaged on the word "crouch"!! Basics! Furious about that game. Was thinking with a win we could go on to beat Boks and then a hard game with a 50/50 game vs ABs would at least restore some home pride even if we cant often win away to top 3. Now only wins over Boks and ABs can do that and I've lost faith in the team. That was a weak Oz team. No excuse. I can't see much progress and WC we will be hosting a contest between RC nations and France. What the players are saying is encouraging until you think about the Oz team we lost to. Word off the pitch are our strength. Two wins is the only way out from here.
Posted 21:41 18th November 2012
MjMack says...
I'm sorry but watching 15 imitation Barney the Dinosaurs had me laughing so much that I forgot to watch England get beaten! If England put as much effort in to playing rugby as opposed to changing the colour of their strips they might one day reach their potential and get in to the top 4 elite group. As it is the current top 4 in IRB rankings are pretty much an accurate reflection of Rugby's current power base with perhaps Australia more realistically at number 4, however they did beat the lizards in purple.
Posted 19:49 18th November 2012
NHsaints says...
Not your fault Cole, normally you'd have Hartley on the inside holding you up while the front row trampled over them but youngs doesn't yet have the scrummaging experience to beat his man on the shove and add to your side of the scrum, Marler doesn't have any excuses though, he gave away some silly penalties and never really had the scrummaging capabilities. I'd much rather see Corbs start this week with Vunipola still on bench (he was really good when he came on).
Posted 18:24 18th November 2012