David Campese’s Six Nations form guide: ‘Reactive rather than proactive’ Steve Borthwick stuck in the past as Wallabies legend ‘fears’ for England
England head coach Steve Borthwick and fly-half Marcus Smith, and Wallabies legend David Campese.
In the second of our series, Wallaby legend David Campese examines the form and fortunes of England, a team that needs a statement showing in this season’s Guinness Six Nations.
Overview
England are a side stuck in a groove of disappointment and underachievement. For me, 10 losses against the top four sides in eleven attempts tells a tale of a team that are nearly there, but are struggling to push past that ceiling of closing out against quality opposition.
What concerns me is they’re not appearing to learn on the job and, with a tough opening schedule, I fear for Steve Borthwick’s position unless he can inspire some serious performances against the Six Nations big boys of France, Ireland and the outstanding Scots.
Style
My biggest criticism here is that England are too obsessed with closing down the style of their opponents that they are not formulating a clear style of their own. Borthwick’s back-row selection for the Ireland Test is one focused at stopping Ireland’s attack over and above catalysing their own attack.
Test rugby is no longer about containing, it’s very much about creating. I don’t think the English central contracts allow the head coach to explore form players either. England has 10 clubs to choose from, so pinning your mast to 17 of those prevents others breaking through and that’s becoming a clear issue.
England have picked a team for Ireland with two lineout jumpers against five. This means they’re abdicating any form of touch kick game and want a high ball in play time. Sure, they’ll go hard at the breakdown, but that’s business as usual for the Irish and I don’t see that will worry the hosts.
I fear for Marcus Smith. Borthwick has already demonstrated clearly that he doesn’t trust Marcus to close a game out, taking him off on a number of occasions when England were behind. I can see England struggling to get a result in Dublin and at home to France, and then I see Steve going to Saints and exploring a Fin Smith-led attack to turn things around. All of this demonstrates that England simply don’t know what style of rugby they want to play.
Borthwick has had some 29 Tests to develop a style and so far all we’ve seen is a man that selects and strategises reactively rather than proactively, and that’s down to an obsession with stats.
As any businessman will tell you, using his accountant’s statistics tells you everything about the past but it tells you nothing about the future. Borthwick is rooted in looking behind him and it’s time he looked forward, at the future of English play, and decide what systems and ethos are the DNA of his team, because right now I am darned if I know!
Superstars
I think you have to look at the half-backs, Alex Mitchell and Marcus Smith. You need these guys to play their club game and attack, not worry about deep structure. Let them play deconstructed and transition rugby, a pace-based game over a possession-based game. Mitchell is a key man and offered so many threats and it was clear when he was missing in the autumn that England struggle without him.
I am also a big fan of Ben Earl and I don’t mind him at eight at all but clearly he’s best at Test level on the openside. You need to give him the best chance of success and he needs big collision carriers around him to function at his best.
I’d add Ollie Lawrence in the mix. He is a baller of a centre – powerful and fast – but he’s suffering from a lack of identity, not knowing if he’s at 12 or 13, and he struggles at times with his midfield partner’s poor distribution. Henry Slade’s passing, especially left to right, has been appalling in recent Tests. I think he’s around 50 per cent pass completion and that holds the England backline back.
Scorelines
I know I have a reputation for Pommy bagging, but I fear for England this season. Having seen the team they’ve picked for Dublin, I could see them pulling off a win against the odds if everything goes in their favour, but that’s a big if. But, rather contradicting myself, if it doesn’t fall their way, it could be a pasting and I reckon Ireland will press the accelerator and it could get messy – 41-19 or so to the hosts.
With France and Scotland at home next up, you’d be a brave man to bet on England for either of those. If England lose both then Italy, with a brilliant midfield, and Wales, raising their game for the old enemy, could become huge hurdles, even for England. For me, it’s a fourth place at best, and if England can’t take two from their last three matches, it could even be worse than that.
