Expert Witness: George Chuter slams Eddie Jones

Colin Newboult
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With the Six Nations underway, former England and Leicester Tigers hooker George Chuter joins Expert Witness to examine the key talking points of Le Crunch and to look forward to the Calcutta Cup.

The oldest question in rugby is ‘it depends which France turns up?’ Last Sunday, Les Bleus answered that query in emphatic style as they absolutely beat up England in a stellar display in Paris.

Hampered by injury and some interesting positional selections, England lacked physicality in attack and organisation in defence, with a total of 41 handling errors in 49 minutes of ball-in-play time.

Yes, France were compelling, with an outstanding display from the spine of their team, Gregory Alldritt, Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, inspired by towering leadership from their charismatic flanker Charles Ollivon, but this unexpected defeat now asks serious questions of England’s progress under Eddie Jones.

Pillars of salt

2007 World Cup finalist Chuter believes that England need to regroup quickly in order to prevent a slide of seismic proportions.

“Working out a game plan is hard enough when you’re selecting players in the correct positions, let alone ones they’ve hardly played in,” he said.

“It concerns me greatly that England are becoming a team of Eddie Jones’ salty soundbites rather than any real substance of performance. His comments before the last couple of internationals have been arrogance personified and there’s a danger both he and his team are starting to believe the rubbish Jones is spouting and taking that overconfidence onto the pitch with them.

“Could you see Steve Hansen or Rassie Erasmus chirping to the press in the way Eddie does? Not a hope. They respect the game, their opponents and their players.

“Can you imagine the squad cringing as some of his left field soundbites get quoted? Can you picture the opposition drawing motivation from his disrespect? His words are putting immense pressure on his own players and it’s almost, no, it HAS, become a game for him; one that’s actually detracting from the way he’s coaching his team.

“If we wanted a comedian to coach England, we’d be better off employing Peter Kay; at least he’s actually funny,” quipped the former England hooker.

“Let’s look at that thought of Eddie’s arrogance; his continued and mistaken self-belief that he is some sort of messiah that can magically turn flankers into eights, locks into flankers and wings into full-backs is costing him dearly. He’s forgetting the basic notion that rugby is first and foremost a game of structure and his whimsical desire to be different is absolutely destroying the confidence that good and settled selection brings to a team.

“Soundbites like ‘brutal physicality’ mean nothing if you’re not selecting players that can bring that to the match. To compound this, playing the likes of Tom Curry at eight and Courtney Lawes at six not only puts them in a position where they’re likely to fail, it also removes them from the positions in which they’re undoubtedly world-class.”

Pillars of sand

“If you examine in detail the performances of 2019 and last weekend, two fantastic wins have given England a sense of false confidence that’s cost them. I am going to be brutal here and suggest that the wins v Australia and New Zealand need a little more honesty when examining them; both sides are shadows of their former selves and, while England played well in both matches, the performances either side (Scotland at Twickenham, South Africa in the final and Wales in Cardiff) showed some serious flaws and weaknesses.

“Had England lost either, Jones would now be seeking work with P45 in hand. England had some slices of luck during that World Cup that’s enhanced some very mediocre performances, with the same errors occurring time and time again.

“In the centre of this is a lack of a fulcrum on-field leadership, catalysed by the brashness of Eddie himself. When he’s such a control freak, it’s hard for other voices to emerge. When you look at the sides of 2003 and indeed, my own team of 2007, leadership was present in each unit of the side. In ’03, there were eight club captains and six international skippers in the starting line-up. In ’07, the likes of Martin Corry, Phil Vickery, Ben Kay and Jason Robinson provided loud and clear captaincy of their respective units.

“If you listen to the ref mic during the game, you hear England players whinging. You don’t hear clear commands and instructions, as you might do when the All Blacks or Ireland play.

“On Sunday, France had seasoned internationals like Gael Fickou, Ollivon, Bernard Le Roux and Teddy Thomas loud and vocal all game. We don’t see that from England, they’re as quiet as a church mouse on the field and we need to develop some of the communication and direction from the senior players, and I am concerned that’s lacking within the English side.

The key

“Looking forward to the Calcutta Cup, the key is how England react both emotionally and selectorially to the defeat. Again, the retention of the same 35 players, still with flaws in some positions, shows that the arrogance hasn’t gone away and it’s astonishing that no specialist carrying number eight is in that squad. People like Alex Dombrandt and Nathan Hughes may have question marks around some components of their game, but they keep defences occupied, they create space for others around them and, above all, they understand their own position,” noted Chuter.

“Ben Youngs is a great pal of mine, but I have to say he’s not played well for four years or so now. When England were camped on the French line in Paris, his predictability was palpable. Not once did he look up to see (at one point) a five on two overlap on the openside, and then a minute later, a three on one on the narrow side. Couple this with his continued need to lift and pass (rather than pass from the floor like Dupont or Aaron Smith) and it’s clear he’s focused on Eddie’s desired need to revert to physicality rather than intelligent decision-making.

“This loss means he can afford to make a few changes. Without the big carriers in the back-row or at centre, Ellis Genge will bring sorely needed power yards to the team. At half-back, we need to blood the youth and stop picking journeymen without age on their side. Dylan Hartley said on TV that England should reset what they have and go again but I disagree – there needs to be some serious thinking about some of the selections that clearly didn’t work.

“Scotland had a pretty frustrating day at the office against Ireland, where they showed similar flaws to England. There were things like battering the line when other options existed, dropping key passes or failing to finish simple chances. They gave Ireland a right scare with high quality performances from their front and back-rowers. Had Stuart Hogg not lost concentration and, cruelly perhaps, showboated a bit, Scotland would be going into this game with a rare away win and England cannot afford to take them lightly.”

Key match-ups

“Going into this game, we know that Scotland will be spiky, combative and niggly. Virtually each time I played there, Murrayfield was a bear pit of noise, wind and rain. Couple this with Scotland’s love of disruption and deconstruction and I see this as a very difficult away fixture for England.

“The back three battle will be key. The conditions often suit themselves to an aerial battle and England need to revert to pacy structure and protect the possession if they’re to have a chance of winning. Loose kicks to the likes of Stuart Hogg and Sean Maitland will be returned with either pace or a howitzer boot and I really hope that England either improve their kicking game immensely and choose to play territory rugby.

“Anthony Watson’s injury looks like it’s healed and, if he returns at 15, then his battle with Hogg is one to relish.”

“This is an immensely tough game to call and if England are able to retain ball and play in their opponents half of the field, I see them winning by three or four. If they turnover possession to the Scottish loose forwards or revert to a kicking battle, the result may be very different.

“I really hope, for England’s sake, they and Eddie revert to pragmatic, decision-based rugby, otherwise we will suffer yet another loss on the road.”

Expert Witness thanks George for his time. Next week, former Wallaby skipper James Horwill will join us in the break week to examine the fortunes of all of the six nations so far.

With 384 club appearances and 24 England caps, George Chuter was a durable and skilled hooker in the colours of Leicester Tigers, Saracens and England. He appeared in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final in Paris and scored one try for England versus Australia.

George is part of the Lord’s Taverners Celebrity Cricket XI who will be touring Cape Town in March to help raise money and awareness for the UK’s leading youth sport and disability cricket charity. Visit www.lordtaverners.org for more information.

by James While

 

England