Opinion: ‘Dismal day’ for England and Feyi-Waboso as World Rugby’s ‘nonsensical regulation’ comes into question
England's Immanuel Feyi-Waboso tackles France's Antoine Hastoy and an inset of Cameron Woki.
When Manny Feyi-Waboso returned to the England squad this week Steve Borthwick revealed he had to “almost man-mark him myself in training to stop him throwing himself in”.
The Exeter wing had not played for six months after a shoulder dislocation and surgery and, according to England’s head coach, it was “quite a job” to contain his energy and enthusiasm.
Feyi-Waboso sees red
Fast forward to half an hour in at Twickenham and how the Red Rose brigade could have done with Borthwick on the park as Feyi-Waboso ‘clotheslined’ France fly-half Antoine Hastoy and was sent off.
Initially referee Hollie Davidson brandished a yellow card but it came with a referral to the Bunker and few in the two-thirds empty Allianz Stadium doubted it would be upgraded to red.
The decision capped a dismal day both for England and their 22-year old flyer, playing his first game since December. Feyi-Waboso spilled the ball over the try line inside two minutes and knocked-on again a few minutes later.
It is likely to get worse for both as well as the most exciting finisher in the England game faces a ban likely to rule him out of some, or all, of the three-Test tour to Argentina and the USA.
Borthwick had hoped this would be the day a player with five tries to his name in eight caps lit the blue touch paper on England’s summer.
Instead, he watched them fall 12 points behind to a very makeshift France side, recover to lead by 12 and then give them all back and more in the final five minutes.
England had steadied themselves after hooker Gaetan Barlot and Hugo Auradou crossed early, the latter from a lovely piece of buildup work by full-back Theo Attisogbe.
Tom Willis went over after France were four times penalised on their own line. And they added a second through Alex Coles, after Henry Slade was given a reprieve after throwing an interception.
France were ruled offside, Slade kicked deep into the corner and, from the lineout, Ben Spencer changed direction to link up with Northampton star Coles.
England regroup
There then followed Feyi-Waboso’s rush of blood to the head yet rather than fall away England regrouped the better for Joe Carpenter to score on the stroke of half-time and put them ahead for the first time.
Carpenter thought he had a second on 51 minutes, only for it to be chalked off, to the disappointment of a 34,129 crowd, for a Slade knock-on earlier in the move.
It seemed the greater damage had been done when France suffered the same fate, Nolan Le Garrec’s eye-catching finish nullified by a piece of Cameron Woki foul play.
Instead of a tied game Woki was binned – and upgraded to red – the scoreboard reverted to 19-12 and two minutes later replacement Alex Dombrandt helped himself to the try that decided the contest.
World Rugby needs to ask itself whether the two red-carded crimes were really mild enough to allow both players to be replaced 20 minutes later. It seems a nonsensical regulation which, frankly, damages the game’s credibility.
Borthwick will be more concerned with the way his team fell away in the dying minutes, coughing up a winning run dating back to the first day of February.
Even before Guillaume Marchand and Romain Taofifemua snatched late tries, they were under no illusion that their level of performance would have to significantly improve before Argentina.
On Friday night they sat together and watched the Pumas beat the British and Irish Lions. It was quite the performance by a side which has also beaten South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the past 12 months.
Anyone who thinks Felipe Contepomi’s side won’t now be licking their lips at the prospect of adding an English scalp really does not understand the sporting rivalry between the two nations.
