Five takeaways from England v Japan
Following a 35-15 victory for England over Japan in their November international, here’s our five takeaways from the Twickenham clash.
Defensive confusion: Since John Mitchell took over the defensive coaching role for England, they have transitioned from a ball watching defence (Paul Gustard) to a man watching defence (Mitchell). This change in focus has caused real confusion with the primary defence. With Alex Lozowski and Jack Nowell (then Henry Slade) using fast feet to blitz the attackers, Mitchell’s system requires both the openside wing and the ‘sweeper’ (normally the scrum-half) to control the two outside attackers. Time and time again, Japan cleverly ran down George Ford’s channel, which gained metres, and on several occasions, Danny Care joined his half-back partner in defence from necessity. This allowed Japan to use fast hands to create a two-on-one on the openside wing, knowing that England’s sweeper had already committed to a tackle on the first phase and was effectively out of the game. This became an even bigger issue when Slade replaced Chris Ashton and created so many doglegs in the midfield; one wondered if he was a part time veterinary surgeon. England have been muddled in their defence all November and, with three games under their belt, they should now be used to Mitchell’s system.
Discipline is key: In the first 25 minutes England gave away six penalties. Any possible momentum you get in the game is ruined by a count of this nature and their lack of clear thinking under pressure was obvious. In their last 12 games, England have conceded over 35% more penalties than their opposition. You cannot win games of international rugby when playing without the ball, and frankly, if this trend continues, England’s gifts to their opponents are so generous they might consider launching their own Christmas TV commercial in December.
It starts at the beginning: Nothing in this game was more contrasting than the battle of the scrum-halves. Japan’s speed to recycle and speed to attack came from the lightning service of their little magician, Fumiaki Tanaka, who gets the ball away from the contact area with impressive speed, accuracy and variation. Meanwhile, Care, a man at his best when running with ball in hand, offered a service to his backline that was so slow you would need a calendar to time it. Not content with a shuffle and a step before release, his passing was lamentable, bouncing like a ping pong ball at the feet of the intended recipient. It’s no wonder that England struggle for go-forward when their connectivity between nine and 10 is so sluggish.
Land of the rising hopes: Yet again, Japan underlined their aspirations as a first tier nation. In terms of style, not many are as precise, as quick and as intuitive in their decision-making as Japan, and every side in the world could learn from them in this respect. Jamie Joseph has taken on where Eddie Jones left off and the most interesting feature of their game was their ability to adapt on the field to game situations. They saw instantly how England tried to defend and they attacked Ford. When Slade came on they held back from going into contact and tried to offload around the flying Exeter Chief. To a man, Japan epitomise rugby IQ. They might be the Land of the Rising Sun but in rugby terms, they’re the Land of the Rising Hopes.
Eddie’s experiments: Interestingly, this game either confirmed what we already knew or proved what we perhaps feared to be true, rather than unearth any new discoveries. Big ticks go to Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Charlie Ewels, Sam Underhill, Elliot Daly and, yet again, the sublime Mark Wilson, who appears to fast becoming the nearest thing to Richard Hill England have had since the great man retired. But, in debit, Ford’s lack of game-management is palpable and when Owen Farrell is on the pitch England look two metres taller and two metres wider. It’s apparent that the midfield primary defence is disorganised and ineffective and good sides will unlock the midfield doglegs or go around the narrow openside with ease. But most of all, Jones will be pleased; he of all people knows this was a banana skin, and sometimes, good sides just need to go out and win ugly, which is precisely what England did.