by Scott Ingleton
The last time England failed to score in the first half of a Six Nations match, I wasn’t alive. However, on that occasion England walked away with a victory and their heads held high. This time, not so much. After possibly the worst first half performance in the Eddie Jones tenure, it is almost criminal to say England are walking away with at least a losing bonus point. On the other hand, France look extremely dangerous. Creative, explosive, dynamic, all the words you would use to get a job at a startup as a recent graduate can be used to describe this youthful and fascinating French side. Packed with pace in the form of Teddy Thomas and Gael Fickou, power in the form of Charles Ollivon and Man of the Match Gregory Alldritt, and precision in the form of Antoine Dupont and Romaine Ntamack, the potential in the French side is enough to make anyone stop and take note.
If we think back to England’s match against Australia during the world cup, we can see some similarities between these two games. Against Australia, England had 36% possession, and yet still won convincingly. They simply defended because they knew what Cheika’s Australia would throw at them and they knew they could deal with it. Perhaps France have had a similar revelation. France, alongisde their litany of new talent coming through, have appointed Shaun Edwards of rugby league and Warren Gatland fame to their ranks as the new Defence coach. It certainly seems like he has had an instant impact, as France enjoyed a mere 39% possession and yet still walked away with the victory. Even if we look at averages over the halves, in the first France had 43% possession, meaning England had the majority of possession and did absolutely nothing with it.
This matchup is always fascinating, of course. The historic rivalry between the teams, the constant question of “which French team will show up”, the fervour with which the French and English fans support their teams, it all builds such an exciting and electric atmosphere regardless of where the match is played. However, this year’s fixture has multiple layers of intrigue. Jones decided to give Northampton Saints fullback George Furbank his full debut from the start, while Fabien Galthié decided to give Montpellier fullback Anthony Bouthier his full debut too. Bouthier had a pretty good debut, other than being on the winning side he helped command the back line well and placed his kicks accurately. Furbank, on the other hand, knocked on twice, was turned over three times and generally had a poor debut. Considering Joseph on the bench as a potential winger, Jones had the option to keep the surprisingly quiet Daly at fullback, but chose to go with Furbank instead. This is not to say this decision cost England the match, it most certainly did not, but it is worth thinking about. Perhaps Jones wants to bleed some new players early, get them as much gametime as possible before the next world cup – you cannot get started any earlier than the first Six Nations game after a world cup, and it is quite plain to see that the loss of the Final is still fresh in Jones’ mind.
What was worse, however, were the sheer quantity of handling errors by England. In the 28th minute, Farrell knocked the ball on. In the 30th, the exact same thing happened again. One excuse given during the game was how slippy the ball was, but surely the experiences in Japan had given all of those players, Farrell especially, experience in dealing with that kind of obstacle? However, handling errors of course do occur. Humans are humans and will make mistakes. But as professional rugby players, it is reasonable to assume these players know how to score tries – after all, if you score more points than your opponent, you win. Strange, I know. So, when your team – who have failed to score a single point in an entire half of an international test match – are camped on your opponent’s tryline and said opponents have gaps to the right and are outnumbered on the left, maybe take advantage of them.
The pick and go is a classic tryline tactic wherein a team will use its forwards in pods of two or three to try and break through a defence with sheer power. It benefits the attacking teams because you either 1 – drag in a bunch of defenders and leave gaps on either flank, allowing your back line to stack up in favourable odds or 2 – you break through the defence and score. It is also fairly simple to retain the ball in pick and gos as momentum is quite low. So, when a team goes through fifteen phases of pick and go, why the 9 (in this case Ben Youngs) doesn’t look around for other options at any point before the ball is lost to the other team is completely beyond me. Today, he was sluggish, his decision making was generally poor and he seemed unable to change whatever gameplan Jones had given him. Other than his involvement in May’s first try, he was entirely passive. Youngs made 6 runs for a net gain of 8 metres, averaging 1.3 metres per run. In comparison, Dupont – with less possession and less opportunities – made 50 metres from 10 runs, averaging almost four times the amount of ground gain. Furthermore, Youngs missed 4 tackles (with one being the crucial missed tackle allowing Rattez trough to the line) while Dupont only missed 1, making 9 to Youngs’ 5. Most attacking play filters through the 9, and when your 9 is not on point (as Youngs wasn’t today) then results like this can occur.
England still have some silver linings. Underhill and Curry were monsters of the back row, making decent runs and maintaining pressure at the breakdown (Underhill also being the only player to listen to that invaluable advice “always play to the whistle” during France’s second try). Itoje was brilliant as usual, and May got his two tries (though he was also massively at fault for the second French try). Suffice it to say, this England team requires a lot of work and training to get them functioning together again. Perhaps the world cup hangover is still there, or perhaps the turmoil from feeling unbeatable after defeating the All Blacks then getting trounced by South Africa is still biting. Nonetheless, they need to pick themselves up after this loss to a much improved France side, and prepare to return the Calcutta Cup to England, because Scotland will be no easy task either.