England Rugby Mess
I personally thought for most of the game against the Aussies, last week, we were the better team. The difference is that they knew how to score. They knew how to pass, catch and run all at the same time – something that I can only presume must be cheating. We concentrated so much on the battle of the front rows that we forgot about the other 12 players.
Then came the South Africans. I watched the first half at home and then needed to watch the second half in the pub. Everyone in the pub and everyone in the media seem to be of the opinion that Cipriani is the future and Martin Johnson and England just need time.
Unfortunately where Martin Johnson is concerned people are making so many excuses to give him a chance, they are missing the overall picture. The England performance was not about 15 (+reserves) players playing crap, it was about 15 decent players with dreadful tactics. Every ruck – guess what? The ball would be passed to one of two forwards hanging off to the side, the other 6 forwards were in the ruck winning the ball from the one South African who had made the tackle, the result is that you had a huge green defensive line to break through. The media are praising the Sprinkbok defence but to be honest we have no idea how good it is because it was never tested.
If you had a chance to watch the Rugby League World Cup final in the morning you would have seen a group of players passing the ball in front of another player thus allowing them to run onto the ball at pace. Why is this simple and obvious tactic reserved for Rugby League and Rugby Union at schoolboy level (in England). Danny Cipriani might develop into a stand off, but the position requires you to control your backs and get them moving at pace. It also requires some tactical kicking ability. Danny fails at both of the basic attributes of a stand off. Yes, he has flare. Yes, he has potential. Yes, he can make nice breaks once in a while (and yes he has got a good looking girlfriend), but he is an inside center at best and not a no.10.
One last point. We have one player who would walk into any other team in the world and he starts on the bench for England. Matt Stevens is probably one of the best ‘ball carrying’ props in the world and he starts on the bench. Go figure.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
OK, first and foremost lets look at the Cipriani charge down (deja vu?) why stand so far from your scrum half that he has too take two to three steps every time he passed to you? and when he eventually is within range, the pass is so long even a third division pub flanker would be quick enough to put pressure on the fly half, why then having wasted all this time does Cipriani take five (go count them) steps before attempting to kick????
Matt Stevens, yes definatley should be playing, but what about our one world class player…no room for Mathew Tait????? Get rid of these predictable crash centres, it never worked beyond club level with Tindal, it doesn’t work with Noon (at any level). Noon may as well send the opposition a letter and tell them what he’s about to do.
If Mr Johnson wants to develop a world class side (which we/he can do) he needs to build on the core of talent, so OK Cipriani may be one of those to build on, but Tait and Stevens and in my opinion Flood all need to be developed as well.