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Jettisoning your best attacking player makes no sense – Andy Goode
By Andy Goode
Steve Borthwick’s decision to jettison his best attacking player for the game where you should have the most success ball in hand just makes no sense at all.
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Of course, he’ll focus on the impact that Marcus Smith can make off the bench but it feels like he’s the scapegoat again. He hasn’t done a lot wrong and has gone from starting fly half, been shifted out of position and now dropped to the bench in the space of a few weeks.
England have won back-to-back games by a single point, which should be celebrated after losing so many tight games, but their attack still isn’t clicking and it feels like the Harlequins man is the fall guy for a failing system.
If the men in white score a hatful of tries at Allianz Stadium on Sunday, as they should do, then it’ll look like the problem has been solved and the elder Smith will have to wait a while for his next chance, not to mention the effect it’ll have on his British & Irish Lions chances.
Fin Smith has grabbed his opportunity with both hands, whilst offering a bit more of the steady hand that Borthwick will want from his fly half, and Elliot Daly is far from over the hill at 32 but the timing of this move is the oddest part of it.
There’s no doubt Italy have improved significantly in the past few years but they were hammered 73-24 at home by France last time out, with the visitors playing the free-flowing rugby that Marcus Smith is surely best equipped to get England playing.
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Everything we’ve seen from Borthwick at club and international level tells us he isn’t going to play in that manner but the blueprint is there for how to beat Italy and do it in the style that will really get fans on side.
They need to keep the ball in hand though, whereas they’re currently kicking it away more often than any other team in the tournament. They’re only going past five phases with six per cent of their attacking opportunities and that’s a system issue, not a personnel one.
England only went through six or more phases twice against Scotland and you do need to have a good, varied kicking game in your armoury but it’s clearly part of the game plan to utilise it early in the phase count a lot more than most teams do.
It’s something we saw under Eddie Jones and has continued under Borthwick, who is obviously a coaching disciple of the Australian, and it’s hard to see England progressing unless there’s a bit more flexibility in the strategy.
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Alex Mitchell looks a shadow of the player he is for Northampton playing this way, Tommy Freeman isn’t getting his hands on the ball enough and Ollie Lawrence is only able to show glimpses of what he can do.
Fraser Dingwall is the glue for Saints so his inclusion should help with the cohesion of the backline but five of the seven starting backs this weekend play for the Premiership champions, so they have to be allowed to play the way they do for their club.
England need to play more heads up rugby and hopefully the players can take ownership of that, regardless of the game plan put in place by the coaches, but we need to see more shapes in attack because we’ve seen very little by way of a framework thus far.
Every other country seems to have a second layer of attack, pods of forwards with the ability to shift it out the back to a ball player, multiple options for a number 10 to choose from and surely we have to see what England have been working on against Italy.
The Azzurri have a solid, if unspectacular forward pack, and talent behind that with the likes of Ange Capuozzo, Tommaso Menoncello, Nacho Brex and co but if you can keep the tempo high and stress them in defence, it should be a comfortable victory for England.
The players won’t be thinking about their individual prospects, or at least they shouldn’t be, but not many in a white jersey have enhanced their British & Irish Lions prospects in the opening three games of this tournament playing in this way.
Maro Itoje and Tom Curry up front have probably reaffirmed what we already knew but the rest are going to have to show something different against Italy and Wales if they’re going to catch Andy Farrell’s eye, especially those wearing a shirt with nine or above on their back.
Jamie George will be hoping for a big performance in that regard on his first start of the tournament and on the occasion of his 100th cap. It’ll be an emotional day at Allianz Stadium after a tough year or so for him personally and having the captaincy taken away from him.
It’s hard to think of a more well-liked player, he’s been an incredible player for England over the years, I’m delighted he’s starting and getting to lead the team out and you wouldn’t bet against him being on the plane to Australia in the summer as well.
England have won all 31 of their previous Tests against the Italians so clearly defeat at home should be unthinkable. They’ll be desperate for a reaction after their French fiasco but it isn’t belittling them to suggest that anything less than a bonus point and a 20-point win will be considered an underachievement.
It isn’t going to be a walkover by any stretch of the imagination and it’s highly unlikely they’ll be exposed in the same way they were against France but if the straitjacket is taken off, it should be a chance for England to show their identity and finally shine in attack.