Opinion: Time in ‘short supply’ for England and Steve Borthwick as ‘perspective’ needed in Japan ‘training run’
Tommy Freeman's piece of skill for England in victory over Japan in 2024.
Nine tries for England and Japan put to the Samurai sword on Eddie Jones’ return to his old stomping ground. All’s well that end’s well? Not exactly.
The real measure of England’s autumn was not to be found at Twickenham in a match they were never going to lose, but at Murrayfield where Scotland beat Australia.
The same Wallaby team that won in south west London a fortnight before, taken apart by opponents who have never achieved a Six Nations title and came away cursing that they had really not played well.
This is the prism through which England’s first win in six games should be viewed. “The autumn did not go the way we wanted,” Marcus Smith admitted. “But it’s always good to finish with a win.”
Questions not answered
There is that, of course, but this was little more than a training run. It did not answer the questions about England’s chocolate ‘hammer’ defence, nor take us any closer to an idea of how competitive Steve Borthwick’s team will be in the Six Nations.
What it did, plain and simple, was end a losing run which had become a real problem. Five in a row was the worst Red Rose sequence since 2006, three straight at home a feat unmatched since 2018.
Another and there would have been tears before bedtime. Possibly blood on the board room floor. The situation would have been that grave. At least, all live to play another day.
There were, of course, moments to enjoy. The smile worn by Ben Earl after opening the scoring against a coach who neither picked nor really rated him.
The brilliant way Ollie Sleightholme dropped the ball on his toe to beat his marker in zero space and score for the fourth time in three Tests.
Two tries for captain Jamie George on the day he joined Dylan Hartley as the country’s most-capped hooker; the delight on the face of Asher Opoku-Fordjour as the 20-year old came on for his debut.
The ease with which Fin Smith took charge after coming on at fly-half, bringing structure and composure to England’s play and ensuring they finally ‘won’ a fourth quarter.
Perhaps, best of all, the sumptuous piece of skill by Tommy Freeman in winning the race to a diagonal kick and, in one motion, flipping the ball behind his back and inside to George Furbank for the try.
‘Perspective’
But all of this has to be put in perspective, measured against the fact England could not have hand-picked better opponents for the occasion. A nation without a win in the fixture, one which conceded an average 46 points in the last three meetings.
Japan fielded a starting XV with only 211 caps and lost its hooker in the warm-up. Yet because they are coached by Jones the match was given a billing it did not deserve.
Why on earth this was not scheduled for the first weekend of the autumn, when the benefits would have been obvious, rather than the last, when England found themselves in no-win territory, is anyone’s guess.
We were warned Jones is the master at getting teams up for big games, told he would “definitely” have tricks up his sleeve and reminded of his 62 per cent career win rate as an international coach.
Less was made of the fact he had won only seven times in his last 25 attempts with England, Australia and Japan. And that his current charges are ranked below Georgia in the pecking order.
So while it was pleasing and doubtless an enormous relief to England to put up the W, it achieved little more than putting an end to a sorry sequence.
Here they won collisions easily and carried over the tackle line, just as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa had done against them. They executed lineout-driving maul drills in a way they couldn’t against the SANZAAR trio.
But there was so little pressure applied to their skills; the most obvious example being the time Jack van Poortvliet had to box kick, a week after being suffocated in that area by Eben Etzebeth and his marauding Springboks.
The defence
And still concern remains for England’s defence, a “disaster” in the view of former England star Austin Healey. Even George, the skipper, conceded: “We need to be much much better at executing it.”
Too often out of possession England displayed moments of vulnerability, most notably when carved open from 60 metres before half-time for Naoto Saito to score – then Chandler Cunningham-South and George Martin leaving a gaping hole for Kazuki Himeno to saunter through for a second.
“It takes time, there will be pain for a bit,” said Marcus Smith. Trouble is, time is a commodity in short supply. England’s next two games are against Ireland and France, ranked two and four respectively in the world.
Then it is Scotland. The nation whose defeat of Australia today serves as a reality check as to how much work lies ahead for this England team.
