England Rugby - World Cup Woes

Well, England Rugby have played themselves into the record books, the first host nation to go out of the world cup in the group stages.

Not the best of accolades but it is something that will be in pub quizzes for many years in the future.
The question raised now is, what went wrong and where do England go from here?

What went wrong is simple, England lost to Wales and Australia in the group games and therefore gave up all hope of qualification.

Going back to the start of the tournament, there was a lot of optimism around England that maybe this team could go all the way. Maybe losing to New Zealand in the final but hey! at least they'd made the final.

And then Lancaster released his final squad for the world cup, then a few eyebrows were raised. Recent rugby union convert Sam Burgess would be in the team whilst tried and tested centres Luther Burrell and Kyle Eastmond are left out. As a Bath Rugby fan myself, I was disappointed to see Burgess included. He has had some good games for Bath but he is still learning the game and often offloads and tackles as if he is still in league, not what you want to be seeing in games of union I can assure you. But also the fact that he would be acting at centre in the world cup. He has played here for Bath and...well.....let's just say it's better when he doesn't, he has been tried at flanker and seems to fit that role much better. But Lancaster wants him in the centre and that was that.

And so it came to Friday 18th September, the opening match of the rugby world cup 2015, England v Fiji. The final score was 35-11 to England, with them also picking up the try bonus point for scoring 4 tries. It was by no means a walkover for England and I still feel that they underestimated Fiji but a win is a win and it was 5 points on the board for the hosts. 

Unfortunately, centre Jonathan Joseph and no.8 Ben Morgan picked up injuries and were out of the game against Wales.

Wales have had a horrendous time with injuries going into this world cup and it was thought that, whilst it would be close, England would walk out of the game with the win.
That wasn't to be.

Wales won 28-25 on the night but that doesn't tell the whole story.
Lancaster decided to replace the injured Joseph by moving Barritt from his position of inside centre to the unfamiliar outside centre and throw Burgess in. This was yet another untried centre pairing under Lancaster and it is getting ridiculous. Slade had played outside Burgess in a warm up game and they looked fairly ok together, so why not use this combo again? Or better yet, pick a player who has played at centre for England with great achievement during the 6Nations?... Oh, because Burrell was sat at home with his slippers on after being left out.

Anyway, England were 10 points ahead after 53minutes of play before Wales clawed their way back into it after silly penalties given away by England and some dire defending for the Welsh try, helped with a group of backs that are unsure how to play together.
A huge penalty from Dan Biggar overturned the deficit and put Wales ahead with 5 minutes to go. Then England picked up a penalty in the Wales end, kickable for Owen Farrell who had a 100% kicking record for the game so far. But instead of pointing to the posts and likely picking up a draw, captain Chris Robshaw indicated to touch, showing no messing around and that England were going for the win. They set up the lineout and were promptly dumped into touch by the Welsh defence before they had even settled with the ball. And that was that.
Now, Robshaw has been vilified for the decision to go to touch. Personally, and this is completely my personal opinion, I have no issue with the decision to go for the win. However, with 2 minutes to go you could bet everything that the Wales defence will be a rock. They clearly weren't going to jump at the lineout and just shove the maul England would set up, just as they did. So why didn't Robshaw and the team have a plan B? Throw the ball to the back of the lineout and spread it, or send it back to the scrum half from the jump and look for a gap opened from the surprise change of tactic at the lineout. But no, they tried to go for the drive and played right into Wales hands.
This left England needing a win against Australia to have a hope of qualifying for the knockout stages. And that is not a position you want to be in!

The week leading up to the game, every member of the England squad came out and said they knew what had to be done, they would throw the kitchen sink at Oz & that they would definitely qualify from the group.

But that’s not quite how things worked out.

England crumpled to a 33-13 loss that ended their world cup.
And, in all honesty, they got much more than they deserved. There was nothing about England that even suggested that they had to win and were doing everything in their power to do so.
The scrum was dismantled with ease. The only direction England had was going through Joseph, who was still being brought back from the injury that left him out of the Wales game, and he was being swallowed by the Aussies before he even had control of the ball. The breakdown was an embarrassment, Australia were over the ball supporting their weight immediately, whilst England meandered to help their teammate and subsequently had a penalty called against them. I’m not sure if Ben Youngs’ was carrying a knock but he was incredibly slow at getting to the ruck. Even Mike Brown didn’t seem like his sleight-footed running self. England had nothing to offer and Australia gleefully dismantled them with ease.

Now to think about some changes that can be made in order to re-build after a very disappointing world cup. It is a huge shame that we were saying that 4 years ago but never mind.

Firstly, Stuart Lancaster has to go. In football it is the managers who are thrown to the wolves when things don’t go right and I have always thought that the 11+ players on the pitch just get away with it, pick up their pay checks and wait for the next gaffer to pick him. But Lancaster has had 4 years to sort out what he wants from the team and he hasn’t done that. His tenure included a resounding victory against New Zealand in 2012 when the clouds looked like they were clearing and England may emerge dominant in the game once again. But instead we have dropped back and fallen behind once again. He has been in charge of England through four 6 Nations tournaments and come runner-up each time, that is just not good enough. Not to mention Lancasters’ decisions for this tournament – the initial squad selections (mentioned earlier in this post). 3 games of a world cup with 3 different backs lineup?! Building the team around Farrell, just to drop him for Ford (who has grown extremely well into the role) and then to go back to Farrell after the Fiji game. Ford did nothing wrong in the Fiji game and actually controlled everything when he came on at half time v Australia, everything that worked was running through Ford whose game management is becoming second to none (Bath bias). So, unfortunately, I would say that Lancaster has to get the ol’heave ho.

As for the rest of the coaching staff, it would be a breath of fresh air to replace everyone. But would any of them be pushed up to the top job? Would any of them have done enough to avoid the chop? It would have to be a no from me. A complete clear out and re-build from top to bottom. Possibly to include those at the very top in the RFU.

Onto the team, I have personally never seen Robshaw as a captain and I think now is the time to take the title from him. I seem to recall an issue a few years ago where, ironically, he went for posts on a late penalty rather than going to touch. But he has held the reins on the pitch and has come up short. It is time to give someone else the helm to steer the ship in a new direction.
It is a subject which really came to the fore in the build up to the world cup, England players playing club rugby abroad ineligible for inclusion in the squad. This does seem like a genuinely fair rule, it means the players are all in their home country playing against and with each other whilst still coming up against the best foreign players in the European cups. However, when you have 2 players who have been voted European player of the year the past 2 seasons (Steffon Armitage & Nick Abendanon) you must surely have to re-look at the rule! I’m not saying that those two men would’ve been the difference between a group stage exit embarrassment and being crowned champions, but the fact they were omitted without a second thought is another reason that England are holding themselves back.
Speaking of players left behind, how about Dylan Hartley? Cited for a head-butt at the end of the Aviva Premiership season. England’s ‘bad boy’ was ruled out of the warm up matches and would miss the opening game v Fiji. Now, a head-butt is a stupid thing for a sports player to commit and Hartley was rightly punished. But France’s Huget stamped on a players head (still unpunished, go and watch the video of it and tell me he shouldn’t face criminal charges) and was selected in their squad, so why not Dylan? Well, for starters, this recent ban meant that Hartley’s total weeks banned was up to 54. 54 weeks where a player has been repeatedly punished for infractions and I feel that he deserved to be left out of the squad. And even some of the blame shouldered onto him for the woeful performances, a subsequent punishment of the knock on effect his ill-discipline can have onto the squad as a whole.

Today, Tuesday, Lancaster has announced the team that will face Uruguay in England’s last world cup match. As expected a lot of fringe players have been brought in, including Slade at 13. With Farrell as his central partner….yup, yet another centre pairing for Lancaster. Excuse me for thinking laterally but when England faced France in a warm up game, Burgess & Slade played together and looked fairly decent, why not stick them in again?! It’s Uruguay, Burgess can’t do much harm! Although he has received a warning for a high tackle in the Australia game so maybe this is his “punishment”. 

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts as to the state of the England team after an incredibly short stint in their home world cup.
I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to add your ideas in the comments.