With England pulling off another one-point victory, Planet Rugby welcomes back one of the world’s leading coaching minds, Eddie Jones, to examine the key battlegrounds in the Calcutta Cup Match.
The ex-England boss also takes a look at what the Red Rose need to focus on to beat Italy in Round Four of the Six Nations.
Emotional Management
Let’s look firstly at the big-picture context of this match. 50/50 calls went England’s way, that is indisputable. Breakdown became jeopardy as the officials allowed a contest – possibly too much of a contest – and that suited England who wanted to play a low ruck high kick game, setting up down the blindside and hitting tackles and contestables.
The ruck contest and the management of it was key; Maro Itoje did a fantastic job on communication with the officials – people underestimate the age-old importance of keeping the refereeing team on your side and Maro’s calm and gentle way of interacting against Finn Russell’s more direct approach was good to see as that’s not always been the case for English sides. I’d align it to getting marginal calls off cricket umpires – get them agreeing with your view of events and it assists in getting those 50/50 calls.
Scotland didn’t react well to their attacking chances. They scored their second try after 18 minutes and their third after 78 – that means that during 60 minutes of the match they failed to take advantage of the immense possession and territory they achieved – and Gregor Townsend will be asking why?
Was the enforced introduction of Ben Curry a factor here? I suspect it was, as it allowed the England back-row real pace and mobility to support their tactic of setting up down the wider channels, but I also think it alludes to Scotland not having big carriers in the forwards to really dent the gain-line, and the pressure England applied on Russell. Given the issues around the England box kick, something I will cover in more detail, Russell should have made a lot more impact attacking the openside of the pitch and he, together with his carriers, failed to make those opportunities pay.
Kicking Game
I know that some do not enjoy the kicking focus in Test rugby but, executed well, it can be match-winning. England went in with a clear strategy but at times, execution failed them.
England struggled with the contestables due to their own kick quality. Six kicks were too long and they lost five of the duels they should have won – giving a return of 38%, excluding the overkicks. England were looking to contest into chaos and kick to tackle – and the poor execution hampered this.
In defending, England lost three of the six contestables Scotland put up, and that created pressure- losing this battle was reflected in the territorial battle – Scotland had 60% of it – and it prevented England entering the Scots’ 22 – that happened only four times – and that cuts down try-scoring opportunities.
They were squeezed into their own half with 26 exits. This happened against Ireland too (27) whereas you’d expect to see 17 or 18 on average.
However, what England did do well was seen in the first quarter of the second half, where they implemented a ‘squeeze plan’ to get the ball behind Scotland and to transfer early pressure back onto them, enjoying their biggest territorial advantage and longest-time in Scotland’s part of the pitch.
Attack and Collision
In kick return to transition, the key attacking point in Test rugby, England needed to be pushing the first phase further up the pitch – 20m further forward before ruck, and you do this working in partnerships.
George Furbank is missed in doing this for England – a real superpower of his. In handling, England didn’t react well to two-sided attacking opportunities and struggled for speed of ball, partly down to the work of the Scottish flankers – but England kept pushing in short crashes which gave backfield space to exploit.
In collision, England lacked the power of a real inside presence from back-row and centres to straighten up and gain metres. They lost four breakdown turnovers, the worst return this tournament, and conceded two penalties from tackling in the air and off feet – but the tackling of the aerial catcher was generally a very good part of the gameplan, as was the acceleration through gates – violent support speed into the ruck – two crucial themes that England need to capture and take into Italy in a week’s time.
One crucial point I want to make is in relation to these rucks – when France play at their best, and we saw this in Italy, they create super fast one and two-man collisions. There was a reason France left Francois Cros on for 80 in Rome – he is a master of the attacking ruck and the glue in their ambitions – he had something like 23 positive one or two-man recycle moments in that match on his own. In contrast, on 12 occasions England committed three bodies, sometimes including their nine, into their own rucks – having no effect on ball speed and removing carrying options in recycle, thus reducing options in attack.
This needs to change, posting length is key here (carrier using body length to maximise ruck depth), as is speed to support, which improved greatly when Ben Curry came on.
Defence
England’s new defensive system is best described as a moderated push. They have abandoned the true blitz, something we’re seeing more sides doing. Even the Springboks have changed the way they defend and are not blitzing as they used to.
The difference is best described as with a blitz you’re looking to use 13 to ‘cut the pitch in half’ or to ‘shrink the pitch’. That means 13 runs hard and straight and that the defence attacks the outside shoulders to bring the rucks back into the 10/12/13 area.
In the moderated push, you attack the inside shoulder, maintain accurate spacing and you are looking for the rucks to take place wider – preventing your opponents from attacking two sides of the ruck (this was key versus Dupont in Round Two as he thrives off centre field rucks).
Ideally, you want to break the attack down around the 13 channel, but on a number of occasions, Scotland used Kyle Rowe into the line off his wing to make the extra man. As a result, Scotland got to the edge of the defence 26 times, far too many for Test level.
This was due to poor recognition of short side numbers to push the fold, resulting in domino-ing into space- knock-on effect of poor numbering on the rip (short) side.
Lastly, tackle completion is still an issue. Henry Slade is at 62% for the Six Nations, far too low for a Test centre, and that’s partly a result of the system change but also partly down to recognition. I think he’s falling between two stools here – going from over-aggressive in the old blitz system to overly passive in the new system. But on the flip side, Fin Smith’s 17 tackles demonstrated the value of a tackling ten, something often overlooked by fans and media, as that 10/12 channel needs shoring up and he did that brilliantly.
Back in 2016, a teacher at Warwick School, I think his name was Tom Pearce, told me ‘There’s a kid, Fin Smith, he has it – composure, and stability. He will play Test rugby.’ That was the first time I heard of Fin, and he’s exactly what Tom suggested – someone gutsy who plays rugby in the way Steve Waugh or Allan Border batted – hard, intelligent and uncompromising.
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Looking Ahead
England need to capture their emotional intensity and the things they did well. Maro’s decision to own the scoreboard and take two penalties, knowing that the scoreboard pressure was key and that England weren’t attacking well, were exceptional calls and it would have been easy to have got swept away with crowd and emotional noise.
The set-piece was outstanding and Ollie Chessum’s return was a large part of that. However, I do feel that Tom Willis’ HIA aided England and they grew defensively with effectively three sevens on. That also allowed Ben Earl freedom to carry more in the centres, which helped.
Above all, England need stability. Personally, I’d keep the three sevens in the back-row and use Tom Willis for impact as a carrier. It suits the way England are playing and allows real speed around the breakdown from the back five.
I might be minded to make a change in the centres; we took Fraser Dingwall to Australia in 2021 and I was impressed by his intellect and his leadership communication and given that England are playing four Saints players in the back line, it would make a lot of sense to give him his chance against Italy, who possess a real attacking threat in their two world-class midfielders.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/eddie-jones-maro-itojes-exceptional-leadership-betters-finn-russell-and-the-two-changes-steve-borthwick-should-make
