Half a great performance has not cured all of England's ills
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dannycoyle
dannycoyle
Danny Coyle
Danny Coyle is Deputy Editor of International Rugby News. Before joining IRN he worked for a student magazine, various construction magazines, a mobile phone magazine and a reputable off licence chain. Since joining the magazine full-time he has watched a man race a cheetah, undergone cryotherapy and slept in some of the ropiest hotels in Paris
It would have been easy to get swept up in the euphoria that swamped Twickenham on Sunday as the tries poured in from England.
This was the epitome of modern rugby: pray on turnovers, gobble up the territory as soon as you win the ball and capitalise with batches of five points. It’s what New Zealand have been doing for years.
The game, for the first time since Martin Johnson was trundling about the turf, looked easy. It always does when your pack is producing quick ball of their own and robbing the opposition’s from them
From these two facets sprung the cause for such delirium on a sunny Sunday afternoon. They gave players like Riki Flutey time to lift his head and spot that there were flat-footed giants in his way, and that there was space in between them for him to dart. It gave Harry Ellis time to assess his options and, being a decent scrum-half, choose the right one.
By half-time, the question was being asked about record England victories over France.
But without Toby Flood, departed with a momentarily dislocated shoulder, England, as Johnson said, went ‘off plan’.
Andy Goode tried a few too many cross field punts but his boot had the subtlety of a sledge hammer when the precision of a scalpel was required. The right options, wrongly executed, and the tale of the rest of England Six Nations campaign returned.
Forty minutes then, in which this England team showed what they are capable of, followed by 40 minutes in which the deficiencies came back to the extent that they lost the second half.
The margins between things going right and things falling apart has been a fine one for England throughout this championship, even when they have hamstrung themselves with yellow cards.
They came close to the yellow peril again, conceding 13 penalties in all, to France’s 12, but tiptoed on the tightrope without ever falling off.
But it was a victory well worth savouring even if it was secured with a 40-minute performance and it is a platform, at long last for Johnson to build on.
Tom Croft played so well that James Haskell could play his rugby in Johnson’s back garden and he still wouldn’t replace the Leicester man. Delon Armitage blossomed in the wide open spaces and suggested that Lee Byrne’s claim to the Lions No.15 shirt is anything but a fait accomplis and Flutey looked once more like the player voted the best of the lot by his peers last season.
But in its proper context, this was a job well done against a French team that won’t play so poorly again this side of the next century and, pleasing though it was, it was a start for Johnson and nothing more.
That it has been met with such a rousing reception is perhaps a sign of how far England have fallen.
At least now there is evidence that their slump may have bottomed out.
This was the epitome of modern rugby: pray on turnovers, gobble up the territory as soon as you win the ball and capitalise with batches of five points. It’s what New Zealand have been doing for years.
The game, for the first time since Martin Johnson was trundling about the turf, looked easy. It always does when your pack is producing quick ball of their own and robbing the opposition’s from them
From these two facets sprung the cause for such delirium on a sunny Sunday afternoon. They gave players like Riki Flutey time to lift his head and spot that there were flat-footed giants in his way, and that there was space in between them for him to dart. It gave Harry Ellis time to assess his options and, being a decent scrum-half, choose the right one.
By half-time, the question was being asked about record England victories over France.
But without Toby Flood, departed with a momentarily dislocated shoulder, England, as Johnson said, went ‘off plan’.
Andy Goode tried a few too many cross field punts but his boot had the subtlety of a sledge hammer when the precision of a scalpel was required. The right options, wrongly executed, and the tale of the rest of England Six Nations campaign returned.
Forty minutes then, in which this England team showed what they are capable of, followed by 40 minutes in which the deficiencies came back to the extent that they lost the second half.
The margins between things going right and things falling apart has been a fine one for England throughout this championship, even when they have hamstrung themselves with yellow cards.
They came close to the yellow peril again, conceding 13 penalties in all, to France’s 12, but tiptoed on the tightrope without ever falling off.
But it was a victory well worth savouring even if it was secured with a 40-minute performance and it is a platform, at long last for Johnson to build on.
Tom Croft played so well that James Haskell could play his rugby in Johnson’s back garden and he still wouldn’t replace the Leicester man. Delon Armitage blossomed in the wide open spaces and suggested that Lee Byrne’s claim to the Lions No.15 shirt is anything but a fait accomplis and Flutey looked once more like the player voted the best of the lot by his peers last season.
But in its proper context, this was a job well done against a French team that won’t play so poorly again this side of the next century and, pleasing though it was, it was a start for Johnson and nothing more.
That it has been met with such a rousing reception is perhaps a sign of how far England have fallen.
At least now there is evidence that their slump may have bottomed out.
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