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Four talking points as in-the-shadows England welcome the Wallabies
By Liam Heagney
We have now entered must-win territory for the second time with Steve Borthwick at the England helm. Having headed to last year’s Rugby World Cup with a team that had meekly won just three of its opening nine games with their head coach successor to Eddie Jones, he was under fierce pressure to deliver an upgrade at France 2023.
This he did, his extremely blunt England approach eventually good enough for a third-place finish via the weaker side of the draw.
The expectation after that unexpected outcome was for a continued improvement to be realised. However, while the game plan has been finessed and the attack now looks a more threatening area compared to last year, the results have been slow materialising.
Last weekend’s defeat to New Zealand was England’s fifth reverse in seven outings, but a three wins from four Autumn Nations Series can still quieten Borthwick’s critics.
Australia have been disappointing on Joe Schmidt’s watch, their nadir being that record 27-67 humiliation in Argentina, and it has stoked belief that England are comfortable favourites to win here.
Despite their recent inability to deliver the Ws against other opposition, they have lost just once in the last 11 meetings with the Wallabies. Here are the RugbyPass talking points:
Ollie and the ball
How difficult is it in this modern era of all-seeing, all-watching coaching to get the ball into the hands of the right people at the right time on the rugby pitch? Very difficult, if you take the case of Ollie Lawrence.
You’d imagine that by stationing him regularly at inside centre in a midfield partnership with Henry Slade, England’s would by now have perfected what they are trying to do with the ball in hand.
Instead, while they have named an unchanged starting XV for their second Autumn Nations Series outing, they have abandoned the selection of Lawrence in the 12 channel with Slade at 13 after seven consecutive matches. Instead, on this occasion, they are venturing in with Lawrence on the outside and Slade on his inside.
What gives? Somehow, despite England having fine-combed their game plan to the nth degree in the analysis booth, Lawrence, who topped last weekend's tackle chart with 22, had the ball in his hands on a miserly two occasions against the All Blacks. That lack of involvement left him listed as only the joint-15th busiest England handler.
While it is understandable that someone like No8 Ben Earl, around whom so much of the England go-forward revolves around, topped the chart with 18 carries, the statistic that right wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso had nine carries was glaring when compared to Lawrence.
The idea behind switching Lawrence to outside centre is that he can potentially get the ball in his hands more frequently, but Slade had it on just three occasions at No13 against the All Blacks.
That positional change is a situation that will now be watched with great interest, particularly as Lawrence’s direct opponent is Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the debut-making 21-year-old code hopper.
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Scrum momentum
It’s curious that the sub hooker and not the replacement props paid the big price for England losing momentum at scrum time against New Zealand. Theo Dan has been cut from the match day 23, unlike back-up props Fin Baxter and Dan Cole.
England experienced joy at the set-piece with Ellis Genge and Will Stuart packing down with Jamie George until the 53rd minute when they were all removed together with their team 19-14 up having reeled in a 6-14 deficit.
The score with the sub English front-rowers involved was 3-10 to New Zealand, but it must be noted that when it came to the final scrum where there was an unsettling shunt and Harry Randall couldn’t properly set George Ford up for a drop goal attempt from phase one ball, it was skipper George who was in the middle of the front row, not Dan who had exited for a HIA.
Dan was fit and available for selection this Saturday but rather than stick with a player who was named as one of the 17 on enhanced elite player squad contracts, Borthwick has instead chosen Luke Cowan-Dickie for what will be his first cap since November 2022.
England hope that he will bring the desired power from the bench with Baxter and Cole supporting him – and that there isn’t a malfunction as happened last Saturday.
Australia haven’t had much of a scrummaging reputation in recent years but there was a mid-Rugby Championship suggestion that they were better than before, so England must be careful if this does ring true.
Losing the room
Brian Moore, the gnarly former England hooker, hit the nail on the head with his port-mortem following last weekend’s 22-24 loss to the All Blacks.
Writing in The Telegraph, he suggested: “Steve Borthwick’s post-match comment that ‘it is important to recognise how much went right’ is the sort of statement that, whilst having partial validity, is wearing thin with England supporters.”
Moore’s reasoning was that too many matches have finished with Borthwick’s side surrendering leads in the final minutes that they should have been able to defend – and he certainly has a point.
A contributory reason why patience has run thin is Borthwick’s flippant attitude in not properly explaining why England aren’t winning, an approach that contrasts to how Andy Farrell candidly spoke on Friday night in Dublin after Ireland's loss to the All Blacks.
Borthwick was in full-on platitude mode last weekend, swerving public accountability and creating the vacuum that was filled by the media and fan criticism about another loss.
While England have played most of their matches in this Borthwick era away from home (last weekend was just their eighth at Twickenham in 25 games), six of their next seven – including this Saturday against the Wallabies – are scheduled for London and the head coach needs to start better connecting with the paying punters (and the media) or he could lose the room before the spring is over.
The Earl dependancy
Mention of England’s ball carrying, there must surely be a concern that their go-forward is much too dependent on Earl and this predictability could hinder them in the long run.
Take the last three matches versus the All Blacks: Earl was credited with a total of 62 carries, 22 both times in the away games in Dunedin and Auckland and then 18 last weekend in London.
They are impressive numbers in terms of Earl’s work rate and, after all, it is a prime facet of his job, which is why the next-best forward carrier in these matches were respectively George Martin (eight), Fin Baxter (nine) and Maro Itoje (six) – a total of 23 which is a stark difference to Earl’s 62.
Note that none of this second-best trio was a back-rower and this lack of a more balanced ball carrying spread amongst players wearing the six, seven and eight shirts could become an issue if England continue to let opposition know that Earl will always be their main threat.
There were just six carries from the other two starting back-rowers seven days ago (Chandler Cunningham-South three and Tom Curry three), seven in Auckland (Cunningham-South four, Sam Underhill three), and eight in Dunedin (Cunningham-South six, Underhill two).
Further context is gleaned from New Zealand’s figures in London, their back row starters collectively managing 34 carries, with Wallace Sititi leading the way on 16, Ardie Savea on 12 and then Sam Cane with six. That was a way more equitable share of the load compared to the England trio of Earl, Curry and CCS.
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