Rugby World Cup 2011 – Week 2

Last week I wrote that the World Cup has not really begun until we get our first look at the All Blacks in action. Sure enough, the buzz is still about how much easier a New Zealand victory over Australia appears this year than last. The fact that the third match of the Tri-Nations was being held in New Zealand is almost immaterial – the All Blacks may have to travel shortly, but it is to New Zealand that the rest of the world will have to come this September.

Holding the World Cup in New Zealand has led the jersey designers to make a series of appallingly bad jokes. First, England revealed that their change kit would be black. Next, today’s opponents, Wales, announced that the return match at the Millennium Stadium would be a black and white affair. Such is the arbitrariness of rugby marketing; teams have to play their home matches in their away kits to ensure that they are even noticed. Rumour has it that even Harlequins have a change kit to avoid a colour clash, presumably when training in old-fashioned sweet shops.

Too Many All Blacks

If rugby’s sartorial side is the biggest talking point pre-match, you start to wonder about where the national side has its heart. Post-match, you really start to worry.

Of course, there were some worthwhile talking points from England’s victory over Wales. About four players in the English team were guaranteed a place on the plane to New Zealand, although many more are likely to go. This uncertainty, added to the Welsh determination to cause an upset and the weeks of preparation for both sides gave rise to a fast-paced game, full of aggression and excitement. That was just as well, because England’s long spells of dominance yielded little fruit and allowed Wales back into the game.

Young Manu Tuilagi lived up to the hype, picking perhaps the one intelligent line from phase play to slice through the Welsh defence and score England’s second try. Jonny Wilkinson appeared a more versatile general of the back line than ever before, while Delon Armitage showed flashes of the inspiration that saw him light up the Six Nations three years ago.

In the forwards, Matt Stevens gave the ballast in the scrum and maturity in the loose. A big heave on the five-metre line in the first half, when England were dominant, saw James Haskell stroll over for the first try of the game. In Haskell and Tom Croft, England have the weaponry to keep defences guessing, although the brute force of Nick Easter is more suited to England’s limited game plan. Croft was quiet in any case, while Haskell failed to pick up on a run from Sam Warburton that would have led to a try but for a superb covering tackle by Delon Armitage.

Almost a truism in modern rugby, England’s malaise owed a great deal to their ineffectiveness at the breakdown. Time and again a few yards were made by one of the big back-rowers, and the first wave of forwards would drive over the ball, leaving it, or Danny Care, if he got there in time, painfully exposed. Care went into the game as second choice scrum half but may have ended it by gifting Richard Wigglesworth a chance to impress, assuming the latter starts next week. Slow around the pitch, passing way behind the gain line and over-enthusiastic in some of his decision making, the link between the forwards and the backs would probably never have been established had Wilkinson not learned in France that there was more to life than drop goals (only two yesterday, but that’s what the crowds were there to see). Matt Phillips, who still tends to overestimate his size, put in a much more convincing performance, while his outside half, Rhys Priestland, looked every inch a Welsh fly half on his fourth cap and having moved from full back when Stephen Jones pulled a calf muscle in the warm up.

The Welsh are determined to go into this World Cup with a different mentality to the one that saw them humiliated by Fiji four years ago. Two training camps in Poland and back-to-back games against England appear to have them relatively fired up, while their collective fitness was impressive. But while they showed flashes of flair and scored three tries after drawing in England’s defence, they conspicuously failed to dominate possession in almost any period and squandered a great opportunity (one of the worst tap kicks you’ll see) with ten minutes to go – which could have made for a more interesting finale. In Cardiff they will be a threat so long as they put out a strong team but it may take more than an expensive incentive to get them past their distinctly physical group.

Festivities in Edinburgh

England have to face Scotland in New Zealand, which may have become a slightly more exciting match up after the latter’s rare victory over Ireland at Murrayfield. The Scots do know how to squeeze the life out of a match, mostly to their own disadvantage. Nonetheless, there is the growing sense that they are capable of a slightly more inventive approach with a decent crop of three-quarters and the ‘Killer B’s’ in the back row. Georgia and Romania may be the only teams to offer a less stern challenge than a distinctly unfamiliar Irish team, however.

There is a sense that the Northern Hemisphere is cobbling together teams at the last minute while New Zealand and Australia submit their long-established thoroughbreds to a tournament that has a history of tough games. Both sets of teams are alike, however, in building their preparations on old rivalries and that is at least giving us something to gloat about, now that we’re all All Blacks.

Rugby World Cup – Week One

The Tri-Nations is hardly making a pretence of being an important competition in and of itself this year. In a shortened form, and with friendlies between Australia and Samoa and New Zealand and Fiji leading up to it, there’s no denying that this is a warm up to the World Cup. Indeed, to Southern Hemisphere folk, this is a preview of the semi-final stage (just take Eddie Jones, convinced that the pool of potential winners for rugby’s grandstand tournament consists of the All Blacks and his own team, Australia).

And just as no football world cup has really begun until the samba kings of Brazil take to the field, or Wimbledon until Federer or Nadal begin to draw the crowds to Centre Court, the World Cup build up is all about the All Blacks.

When an eight-try romp (over Fiji) prompts comments about your rustiness, you know you’re in the Southern Hemisphere. But against South Africa in Wellington, the All Blacks looked like they hadn’t a challenger in the world.

Part of the aura of the All Blacks is that you simply don’t know where the attack is going to come from. Then again, even when you do know – for example, that Dan Carter should on no account be given a gnat’s breath of space – they are still irrepressible. Carter, who kicked abysmally, still ruled his domain with imperiousness. Trapped in his own 22, he slotted a grubber kick through without giving the slightest indication he was considering it. Ma Nonu was alert to it and in a flowing move, Zac Guildford was gifted his first test try. Then, in the second half, Carter fielded a long but directionless South African clearance, burst through one of the gaping midfield holes (thanks to some ‘effective’ obstruction from Richie McCaw) and sent Guildford in for his second. Such was New Zealand’s confidence that they sent on Colin Slade at first five-eights and had Carter tutoring the young Highlander from 12.

Nonu was turning back the years to be his rumbunctuous old self, while McCaw would have to unscrew all the Bokke’s studs and water the pitch with a hosepipe at half time before the referee would call him up for foul play. Then again, the wily blind side is a master of not being seen and probably wouldn’t be caught. Special credit must go to Cory Jane, included in the squad as an afterthought and probably the last man you would tell that his name was, well, a bit girly. One individual try of exquisite brilliance and another ruthless finish from fifteen metres out mark him out as a player to watch in a month’s time.

As for South Africa, there’s relatively little to be said. Only Danie Roussow, Morne Steyn and Ruan Pienaar truly looked like test players on the day and though John Smit scored a trademark try from a lineout when South Africa threatened to muscle their way back into the match, the hooker and captain looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. The list of their injured players going into this match give a good indication of the experience that the Springboks are missing.

They will undoubtedly be a different prospect when the pressure of the World Cup environment can turn coal into diamonds and Matfield, Smith and Burger are options for a back row that was done over ferociously by New Zealand, but coach Pieter de Villiers was again making bizarre substitutions and tactical changes, throwing on three-quarters when what the team needed were fresh legs in the forwards to slow the All Blacks advance down. Until then, they will need to refresh their weary troops and prepare to do battle against Australia in Durban on August 13.

Australia may be flying after beating the All Blacks at home, or have their youth and lack of physicality found out. It is worth remembering that they were the last team to beat the All Blacks though, and a victory next week could add some spice to what is already a thrilling Tri-Nations World Cup warm-up.

England Endeavour But Fail To Conquer Everest

England 16 New Zealand 26

England have seen brave new dawns before. In 2005, two years before the World Cup, the All Blacks came to Twickenham and only just won their third straight test against England, 23-19. The following year it was back to business as was becoming usual – a twenty-point drubbing repeated three times before last year’s cagey 6-19 match at Twickenham. A second decent showing is therefore a good measure of progress, though neither would fetch a bonus point in many competitions.

Today’s England are talking up the unity of their current team. Injuries have hit the elite squad less hard than in previous years, although Jonny Wilkinson was again missing. There is less talk of players being slung out of the team when they fail to produce the miraculous – as Ben Kay said earlier this week. Toby Flood even went so far as to call some of the greener English backs ‘game-breakers’. And yet, for all that talk, yesterday’s test against the All Blacks showed just how far behind the ideal England are.

New Zealand are blessed with rugby players who seem capable of endlessly varied moves. When Dan Carter, who has personified the All Blacks for much of England’s losing streak, receives the ball defenders are hardly able to guess whether he will shimmy, pass or kick – and perhaps Carter doesn’t know himself. All it took was a slight drift after getting clean lineout ball and suddenly the former New Zealand rugby international Sonny Bill Williams came from outside centre, stepped inside Shontayne Hape and unleashed the loose forward Jerome Kaino in the England twenty-two. Horsea Gear’s finish was questionable but the gulf in understanding was underlined.

New Zealand’s second try came not long after and was a masterpiece of calm and quick execution. A a poorly fielded kick saw Chris Ashton carry the ball back into the dead ball area and New Zealand has an attacking scrum. England heaved like it was the end of the world and as bodies flew off and the Kiwi front row inched backwards, a lesser team might back buckled. New Zealand didn’t. Kieran Read picked up the ball and passed to the scrum half, Alby Matthewson who drove towards the line. Read, following up, finished the move for a fourteen-point lead.

England never matched New Zealand for creativity (thankfully, because then it would be back to the drawing board to find a cliché to replace ‘a team in Martin Johnson’s image’). Part of the mix of Martin Johnson’s teams these days is the way the folly of youth is compounded by the determination of players like Lewis “mad-eye” Moody and Nick Easter. It was thanks to those two and to the similarly direct but predictable Mike Tindall that England lumbered time and time again over the game-line, five metres here and two there.

Not until a rare mistake from Mils Muliaina – a loose-kick that gave England a lineout just on New Zealand’s twenty-two – did the cloak of invincibility fall, however. When it did so, England were in a frenzy and nearly did the unthinkable by coming within a few metres of the try-line. The chance was squandered when Andrew Sheridan missed an overlap, but in truth the decision to keep the ball tight suggested a lack of direction by fly half Toby Flood (one of his few deficiencies these days). Ben Foden almost threatened to blast away the stuffy image with a searching dart from outside the twenty-two but was unfortunate to be held up over the line on half time.

At half time, England were clearly the more intrepid team but the opening minutes of the second half merely gave way to misplaced enthusiasm as each side added two penalties. Then another New Zealand three-quarter, this time Joe Rockococo, made an inexplicable decision to kick ahead while another was penalised. Chris Ashton, scenting adventure, took a tap from inside his twenty-two and Toby Flood kicked ahead. Ashton, chasing, dribbled a bit further and dived on the ball, while Flood acted scrum half for a hastily arriving Dylan Hartley to drive at the line. The New Zealand-born hooker was as fortunate as New Zealand were for their first try in that he appeared to have been stopped dead in his tracks, but he was not penalised for a double movement and put England back in the game with an outstretched arm.

New Zealand still had not the wherewithal to reset themselves and suffered from a new wave of English dynamism. England came again and again and were close to narrowing the gap to three points when the ball was worked wide for Shontayne Hape to dive over in the corner. The former NZRL teammate of Sonny Bill Williams didn’t steady himself against Isaia Toeva’s desperate shoulder-charge and dropped the ball over the line. It was a fair summary of an English performance that at times struggled to overcome some crucial refereeing decisions, but more importantly lacked nous and finishing ability.

Next week England face Australia, whose flame is burning as brightly as ever before in the post-Stirling Mortlock era. What the Wallabies have lost in physicality seemed to have been adequately substituted for raw pace against the All Blacks and Wales over the past two weeks. It is not often you seen Shane Williams left in someone’s wake, so England will have to be sure that their defence does not rush up too quickly and leave O’Conner space next week. That said, if rugby was an eighty-minute scrum, not only would Brian Moore have something positive to say, but Australia would be in for a kicking each week. England should be able to boss the breakdown and suck in defenders for the backs or Toby Flood’s boot to have a greater influence so long as they stifle Australian attacks early.

South Africa will be a bigger challenge – literally. A year ago, South Africa were the dominant team in world rugby after winning the World Cup, the Lions Tour and the Tri-Nations. Such are the psychological effects of those repeated battles that the Southern Hemisphere gives out all-or-nothing reputations and the ‘Boks are bottom of the pile. They still put down Ireland using the driving maul and the sharp running of Gio Aplan, not to mention Morne Steyn’s forty-eighth consecutive successful place kick (he later ended that run). At their best, South Africa could nullify England in almost every area. Then again, England could turn Twickenham to their advantage but it would help if Toby Flood was prepare to get a bit more involved in shaking up the running lines and the two rambunctious hookers would throw straight.

A Makeshift England Makes For A Disappointing Series

Martin Johnson has endured yet another appalling week of press.  Though it would be quite improbable for the RFU to sack him (downgraded from impossible only by the tantalising availability of Ian McGeechan and Jake White), the first calls a coach to be replaced are a step down a road thatno coach wants to be on.

Such is the forensic nature of the coverage that England have been getting – and we really are getting to be like the Kiwis in the pressure we put on our national team – it’s worth reminding ourselves where Martin Johnson is at the moment.  First, there are the seemingly forgotten injuries.  In Ellis, Armitage, Flutey and Flood, England are missing most of the backline that played in the Six Nations.  In the forwards, Simon Shaw has just returned from injury, Phil Vickery, Julian White and Andrew Sheridan are missing up front and Nick East, who though not to everyone’s taste, carries well, is also out.

This is also a team without the core of leaders who were decisive in the player-power revolution that led to Brian Ashton’s good fortune in the 2007 World Cup.  Corry, Dallaglio, Catt, Robinson, and of course Vickery were just four of the hugely-experienced decision makers on the field that year.

Martin Johnson’s team seem to lack a defined style or strategy, which of course is largely his fault.  Two years from a World Cup, that is a big concern.  But injuries have meant that this series was always going to be a mixture of holding on, and giving younger players an opportunity to gain experience.  On that count, they’ve not done too badly.

That’s why Stephen Jones’ ‘report’ of the game, in which he savages the team, is counter-productive.  England’s problem is that they haven’t begun to gel as a team, that leaders haven’t yet emerged.  Borthwick is a quiet and steady presence, unfavourable for the media, but it is not the captain who makes every decision.  Jones risks stamping on the fragile gains in team spirit that England have made under Johnson.  Of course, when measured against the dynamism of the British Lions, or even of England’s 2007 squad, this team comes up short.  However, compared to the last Six Nations, which seems so long ago, there has been a dramatic improvement.  England are at least a little more consistent, and have ironed out their ruinous ill-discipline.

On the other hand, his incendiary article should probably be posted in the dressing room as an incentive for the team.  What Martin Johnson should be doing is creating a group of thirty players he is likely to take to the World Cup and using the negative coverage to fire them up and create a sense of unity.  He has a number of games left, in which England have to get used to each other.