England’s lack of power and physicality is cause for concern – Andy Goode

Champion teams win the physical battle and Saracens epitomised that at the weekend, while England were found wanting.

A power game and physicality are now a necessity if you want to achieve success at the top level and the weekend laid bare how reliant England are on the Vunipola brothers for that.

The game is all about the gainline, getting over it in attack and stopping the opposition getting over it in defence. While Saracens were doing a perfect job in that area against Exeter at the weekend, England were missing 36 tackles against the Barbarians.

Billy and Mako made 38 tackles between them without missing a single one, whereas Chris Robshaw and George Ford made 15 tackles between them and missed 12.

Defensively, it wasn’t even as if England were making lots of system errors, it was just a case of simple missed tackles. You can’t legislate for that.

One of the best defence coaches I ever had, if not the best, Brad Davis was always shouting defend the ball. It sounds simple, as a mantra, but England didn’t do it and they didn’t make enough gang tackles as well as missing one on one tackles.

If you do that against the likes of Semi Radradra, Josua Tuisova, Malakai Fekitoa, Victor Vito and co, they’ll destroy you. You have to have more energy and stay alive in defence but the intensity wasn’t there.

Maro Itoje, who carried hard and was a menace at the breakdown, Owen Farrell and others playing in the Premiership final will make a big difference coming into camp ahead of the tour to South Africa as well but there should’ve been enough experience and quality in that England team at the weekend to put in a much better performance than they did.

Radradra is one of the best players in the world and is a hard, hard runner but he ran straight through Robshaw after the ball came off the top of a lineout and if your back row can’t tackle him, who is going to tackle him.

It’s interesting reading quotes about this England squad and the new players coming into it and the senior players showing them what the standards are and what’s expected of them at this level. The two players that missed the most tackles were the co-captains though.

It wasn’t the inexperienced players that let them down. Tom Curry, the least experienced player, won three turnovers and was one of the best England players on the field.

Nathan Hughes is going on tour now after Jack Willis was ruled out through injury, with Don Armand still being overlooked, but there aren’t too many options at openside in that squad so I’d start Curry in that first Test in South Africa.

I think he’s up to the test physically and offers that out and out openside option that England have been missing, so I’d put him in alongside Brad Shields at blindside and Billy Vunipola at number eight.

Ford had some really nice touches in attack but teams always go looking for him and to beat South Africa you’re going to have to be physical. It’s a real shame that Ben Te’o has been ruled out because I think Owen Farrell at fly half with him at inside centre would’ve been the best combination for this tour. Piers Francis and Jason Woodward have been drafted in but they aren’t like for like replacements at all.

Elliot Daly, Alex Lozowski and Henry Slade are all good options at outside centre but Eddie Jones has got to get that midfield axis and balance right and there are lot of questions that need to be answered before the opening match against South Africa in Johannesburg.

I don’t think co-captains work either and I didn’t see anyone taking the game by the scruff of the neck and showing leadership at Twickenham on Sunday. Farrell will make a big difference in that regard and Saracens’ England contingent are all leaders and show that week in, week out in the way that they lift those around them.

Mako, Billy and Maro will have a huge effect on England’s physicality in South Africa but there’s no denying how worrying it was to see how much they were lacking in that area without them and it does suggest the depth isn’t there to win a World Cup, which is what Eddie Jones wants to be judged on.

England are at a huge crossroads for me and he needs to look at different players now because some have been churning out ok performances for too long. There are players in that England team that definitely shouldn’t be there on form.

The alarm bells are there and as phenomenal as Saracens were on Saturday, Billy Vunipola aside, their England stars played in the three straight Six Nations defeats a few months ago so the problems aren’t all going to vanish into thin air as they come back into the fold.

England need to raise their physicality and get a power game that worries oppositions. Fixing that issue as quickly as possible is the task in hand and there’s no greater physical test than a tour to South Africa, where they’ve never won a series, so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating next month.