Five takeaways from England v France

Adam Kyriacou
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Following a 22-19 extra-time win for England over France in their Autumn Nations Cup final, here’s our five takeaways from the fixture at Twickenham.

Outmuscled, outthought, outplayed

Make no mistake about it, France’s B team rocked England’s best XV to the core on Sunday. Their commitment on the gain line, the brilliance with which Matthieu Jalibert orchestrated the positional play of his team and the bravery of Les Bleus meant that in every way other than the result, they were the real winners at Twickenham.

Their defence and organisation bore all the hallmarks of Shaun Edwards’ remarkable rugby intellect; the attention to detail shown in areas such as quick, short lineouts and disruptive scrum engagements posed England problems that they were absolutely unable to answer.

The 12-1-2 defensive system employed by France brought a depth to both primary and scrambled defence that England were absolutely unable to penetrate.

On Sunday’s showing, France’s World Cup build-up is compelling. England’s, however, is not yet at the races.

A star is born

France enjoyed 70 minutes of scoreboard ownership. At the centre of everything they did was the exquisite skill and impudence of the Bordeaux-Begles fly-half Jalibert. The distance achieved off clearance and kick return left England in deficit every time that George Ford and Owen Farrell challenged him to a kicking duel and he came off the pitch with his reputation enhanced.

He showed a variety and a cheek with ball in hand that tested every element of the England defence and importantly, moved the focal point of the French attack around in a manner England never got close the mimicking.

With Brice Dulin and Jonathan Danty also putting in strong shifts, the depth France are creating in key positions will see them well for many years to come, and whilst Billy Vunipola was, somewhat bizarrely, considering the absolute ineffectiveness of his myopic charges into contact, named Player of the Match, the real star was the man known in France as ‘La Jalib’.

Unloading

One thing is for sure; the England side that finished the game looked a lot more ambitious and effective with ball in hand than the one that started it.

Ben Earl, Dan Robson and Max Malins all showed a freedom of expression that alluded their colleagues whilst Will Stuart’s power in the scrum and charges in the loose underlined the immense promise of the Bath prop, who looks now to be a strong challenger for the Lions’ tighthead berth.

However, the concerns of absolute lack of direction from England’s 10 and 12 continue. They were bereft of threat, predictable in approach and without any form of creative spark.

The players themselves are said to ‘own the style’ they play; there needs to be a massive shift in self-honesty if their ownership is to be permanent.

Crowds back

For the lucky 2,000 who got to see a live rugby international for the first time in eight months, the ‘feast’ of rugby they saw was a spread based more on quantity than quality. If they were walking out of a restaurant they might be forgiven for commenting that the grub was tasteless but there was plenty of it.

But in truth, it was amazing to hear real cheers, (although towards the end, at times they became jeers of derision) a minor rendition of Sweet Low and some tasty amateur opinions that echoed around Twickenham as clearly as a Pink Floyd guitar solo.

It was, at last, a step in the right direction and it’s only a shame the England side couldn’t manage a similar stride forward.

The bottom line

The cheesy grin on Eddie Jones’ face as the teams clapped each other off told everything you needed to know about how big an Albatross around his neck that winning the Autumn Nations Cup was. Finally, he got over the line in a straight knockout final, something that for all his bluster, doesn’t happen very often.

The simple truth is that save for France’s indiscipline (and a bizarre call by Andrew Brace when he adjudged Sekou Macalou had knocked on) England would have lost.

However, if England are to move forward from here, forensic honesty is required and they must see this match as a game to learn more from in terms of mistakes than they did from game domination or creativity.

The rugby England have played has been turgid, boring and bears no resemblance of the style of teams such as Exeter, Bristol and Wasps. The team has been driven by a crippling fear of failure but paradoxically, that very fear is creating an inability to win with style.

Let’s hope that getting a win in a final liberates this skilled but constrained group of players. They’re a lot better than we’ve seen over the last four weeks and England, as a rugby nation, needs to throw off the shackles if they’re truly to put the smile on people’s faces that Jones himself claims he aspires to.

by James While

 

England