England take on Wales today at Twickenham in the opening game of this season's RBS Six Nations. Martin Johnson has named one of his strongest line ups of his short management career with only injuries to first choice props Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery, flankers Tom Croft and Joe Worsley and centre Riki Flutey affecting his plans.
The last minute loss of Brive centre Flutey is a massive blow to Johnson's plans to thwart the dangerous Welsh centre pairing of Jamie Roberts and James Hook. By bringing in Leicester's Toby Flood, this gives England a stronger kicking option and a like-for-like attacking threat but does weaken the defence considerably. If Flood and Mathew Tait, who has finally been given a chance to start in his preferred position of outside centre, struggle to cope with the bullish running lines of Roberts, expect to see ex New Zealand rugby league convert Shontayne Hape brought on for his first cap sooner rather than later.
Flutey's departure also puts more pressure on the England back row of Louis Moody, James Haskell and Nick Easter to perform. Like last year when Joe Worsley man-marked Roberts for the entire match, they must make every tackle count and not let Roberts across the gain line. If Johnson needs to introduce fresh legs in the second half, London Irish's flanker Steffan Armitage can provide the exposive power required both in attack and defence to keep up the pressure on Roberts.
Up front, England must create a solid platform for half backs Danny Care and Jonny Wilkinson to launch England's back division who Johnson says have been given a license to thrill. With Wales losing two of their three first choice front row players this week, England should now have parity at least in the tight and the lineout looks strong with captain Steve Borthwick and veteran Simon Shaw running ths show. Haskell and Moody provide good options at the back of the lineout too. If the England backs are to thrill the capacity crowd, hooker Dylan Hartley must have the confidence to throw long and use these options at the back of the lineout to give Wilkinson, Flood and Tait the space wide out away from the Wales back row combination of Martin Williams, Adam Powell and captain Ryan Jones.
As captain, Steve Borthwick must quickly develop rapport with referee Allain Rolland to ensure that England do not give away needless penalties at the breakdown, especially as the laws around the tackle area have been revised. From today, the tackler must allow the ball carrier to release the ball before attempting to steal possession. Whichever team gets to grips with this new interpretation first will win this crucial game and set themselves up with a chance of winning the Six Nations Championship.
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If they would just stop passing the ball backwards. And I'm sick of all these 'tries' they make, what we need is actual goals.
ReplyDeleteToby Flood proved to be the weak link in the back line against Wales. It nows rests with Flutey, not long back from an operation, to provide the creative spark necessary to make use of the talent England has in the likes of Tait and Monye. With good performances in South Africe from lions Monye and Croft, a time will come when loyal fans will question why the coaches are unable to get the same performances out of them.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the tries versus goals comments. In the old rules of rugby scoring a "try" allowed the team to "try" and kick a goal. This was the only way to score points. Since the rules were changed to score points for tries and convert for the extras.
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