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As the world cup approaches, naturally there is more and more analysis, debate and often downright arguing on here. It’s great to get so many different points of view from people from all the major nations and several of the smaller ones too, and I’m sure that’ll continue throughout the tournament (mixed in with a solid handful of signed-up-this-morning trolls looking for a fight about a sport they also watched four years ago, but that’s life … ).
However, it occurred to me that the majority of the discussion focuses on selection issues and individual players - understandable, especially given the squads have only recently been announced, but I thought it would be interesting to get some discussion going on each time at a more "macro" level, so I want to hear what you think your team’s gameplan is. How they will approach the game, which areas are strengths they will focus on, which areas are weaknesses and how they will try to mitigate that, how they will attack, how they will defend, how they will kick, and anything else you think relevant or interesting. Obviously this can’t be separated entirely from selection and naturally will link in to discussion of individual players’ strength and weaknesses but the idea of the thread is to discuss the teams in general, not to get bogged down in “who is the better out of X and Y†debates - we have plenty of them all over the site.
So, my take on England:
In attack, we have moved away from our traditional set-piece-dominated game. In the backs we can be very exciting, although like any team we do need good ball for that and the quality of our ball does vary wildly from game to game. George Ford likes to play very close to the gainline with runners off him and when it’s going well he holds defences and creates space and we look very dangerous. After a couple of phases going forward, once we earn the right to go wide we have some real pace and class in the outside backs, although as we saw on Saturday a worrying tendency to waste chances sometimes. In the backs we are starting to use more and more out-the-back passes (like Bath's "diamond formation") to hold defenders and create wide space. We do not ruck particularly well, and often when we get beaten this is a key feature of the game - we struggle to clear out jackals and quickly secure our own ball.
In defence, we focus much more on spreading out and tackling than attacking the rucks and competing for the ball - I think too much so sometimes, but it does play to our strengths as we are well-organised defensively and strong in the tackle. I rarely feel there are big holes in the England defence, although the reliance on tackle-tackle-tackle rather than competing at the breakdown means once under pressure we often struggle to win the ball back, and therefore give away badly-judged penalties.
Our kicking game for me is the big worry. Farrell is probably a better tactical kicker than Ford, but this is one of those areas which for me is not just about the individuals. Our tactics in terms of kicking seem to me incredibly naive - basically, we just kick deep to the back three and back our defence. On good days this isn’t too much of a problem, on bad days it just amounts to giving the ball back to the opposition and letting them attack us again and again and again. A good kicking game gives a team the chance to turn the momentum around, either by kicking intelligently to space, pressurising the return kick and making a net gain in metres, or by putting it high and challenging for it. We don’t really do either; when we do go for a Garryowen, our chase is nearly always very poor. Apart from Mike Brown we don’t have anyone in the side who is really good in the air going forward (i.e., regathering their own ball). I predict that England's’ exit from the World Cup will come to a team which beats us in the kicking game.
Set piece is another worry - from a traditional strength our scrum seems to have gone to pot in the warm ups, and I don’t know why - any analysis from members of the front row union would be gratefully received. I do know all the second rows in the squad are relatively lightweight, I'm sure the lack of grunt has an impact on the scrum being shaky. The lineout is also looking pretty worrying, I suspect good teams will kick to touch and attack us there. We haven’t consistently been getting good quality ball from the lineout for some time now, and I think it’s too late to do anything about it. At this point, realistically I think the best we can aim for is what we got on Saturday - winning most of our own ball pretty scrappily.
Strengths: Defensive structure, forwards playing off ten, attacking wide on with good ball
Weaknesses: Kicking, set piece, competing for the ball on the floor, turning dominance into points, consistency of performance
So that’s my take on us, I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve missed, it’s even possible I’ve said some stuff that is misguided or even utterly retarded! Anyway, let’s hear everyone else’s take on their own or someone else’s country.
However, it occurred to me that the majority of the discussion focuses on selection issues and individual players - understandable, especially given the squads have only recently been announced, but I thought it would be interesting to get some discussion going on each time at a more "macro" level, so I want to hear what you think your team’s gameplan is. How they will approach the game, which areas are strengths they will focus on, which areas are weaknesses and how they will try to mitigate that, how they will attack, how they will defend, how they will kick, and anything else you think relevant or interesting. Obviously this can’t be separated entirely from selection and naturally will link in to discussion of individual players’ strength and weaknesses but the idea of the thread is to discuss the teams in general, not to get bogged down in “who is the better out of X and Y†debates - we have plenty of them all over the site.
So, my take on England:
In attack, we have moved away from our traditional set-piece-dominated game. In the backs we can be very exciting, although like any team we do need good ball for that and the quality of our ball does vary wildly from game to game. George Ford likes to play very close to the gainline with runners off him and when it’s going well he holds defences and creates space and we look very dangerous. After a couple of phases going forward, once we earn the right to go wide we have some real pace and class in the outside backs, although as we saw on Saturday a worrying tendency to waste chances sometimes. In the backs we are starting to use more and more out-the-back passes (like Bath's "diamond formation") to hold defenders and create wide space. We do not ruck particularly well, and often when we get beaten this is a key feature of the game - we struggle to clear out jackals and quickly secure our own ball.
In defence, we focus much more on spreading out and tackling than attacking the rucks and competing for the ball - I think too much so sometimes, but it does play to our strengths as we are well-organised defensively and strong in the tackle. I rarely feel there are big holes in the England defence, although the reliance on tackle-tackle-tackle rather than competing at the breakdown means once under pressure we often struggle to win the ball back, and therefore give away badly-judged penalties.
Our kicking game for me is the big worry. Farrell is probably a better tactical kicker than Ford, but this is one of those areas which for me is not just about the individuals. Our tactics in terms of kicking seem to me incredibly naive - basically, we just kick deep to the back three and back our defence. On good days this isn’t too much of a problem, on bad days it just amounts to giving the ball back to the opposition and letting them attack us again and again and again. A good kicking game gives a team the chance to turn the momentum around, either by kicking intelligently to space, pressurising the return kick and making a net gain in metres, or by putting it high and challenging for it. We don’t really do either; when we do go for a Garryowen, our chase is nearly always very poor. Apart from Mike Brown we don’t have anyone in the side who is really good in the air going forward (i.e., regathering their own ball). I predict that England's’ exit from the World Cup will come to a team which beats us in the kicking game.
Set piece is another worry - from a traditional strength our scrum seems to have gone to pot in the warm ups, and I don’t know why - any analysis from members of the front row union would be gratefully received. I do know all the second rows in the squad are relatively lightweight, I'm sure the lack of grunt has an impact on the scrum being shaky. The lineout is also looking pretty worrying, I suspect good teams will kick to touch and attack us there. We haven’t consistently been getting good quality ball from the lineout for some time now, and I think it’s too late to do anything about it. At this point, realistically I think the best we can aim for is what we got on Saturday - winning most of our own ball pretty scrappily.
Strengths: Defensive structure, forwards playing off ten, attacking wide on with good ball
Weaknesses: Kicking, set piece, competing for the ball on the floor, turning dominance into points, consistency of performance
So that’s my take on us, I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve missed, it’s even possible I’ve said some stuff that is misguided or even utterly retarded! Anyway, let’s hear everyone else’s take on their own or someone else’s country.
