6Nations Conclusion - England Perspective

No post about the 6 nations would be complete without congratulating the Welsh on their Grand Slam.
They won some games by very small margins, but historically, it is always the better teams that manage to finish off a game and walk away with close victories.


However, I want this post to be about England (rather than turning into England v Wales)

England came into this tournament with fans and pundits alike expecting us to be fighting for 4th place in the tournament.
We were expected to get completely outplayed by the Welsh. The Irish were expected to be far too organised for us, and we certainly weren't expected to get near last years World Cup finalists.

The first 2 weeks of the 6nations appeared to prove this.
Very unconvincing victories away to the Scots and the Italians made it appear that those predictions were probably correct.
However, the following games showed that there is definitely progress being made.

We started the 6 nations as a young, inexperienced squad with a new, untested (at full international level) coaching team.
We have played throughout the tournament with consistent squad selection, and what appears to be consistent tactics.

Our young front row continues to receive considerable credit for their performances (as does G. Rowntree)

We have a number of young options in the 2nd row, who generally appear very athletic as well as allowing the scrum to function
I am usually a fan of large 2nd rows, rather than the lineout type options, but Parling has done very well.
With Botha (who I'm not really sure of), Palmer, Lawes we do have some very good options now

Our back row unit is always contentious. Our best players don't really match the traditional skills required for their positions.
Croft is not a normal 6 and Robshaw is not a normal 7.
Our first choice backup is probably Wood, and he is not a normal 7 either.
Morgan appears as though he could become a very good 8.
He has the control, strength and power of Easter and the dynamism of Haskell.
Obviously, he needs more time to improve, but he definitely appears very promising
I'd like us to have a proper scavenging, fly half hunting 7 on the park, but Croft is unlikely to get dropped, and Robshaw is currently Captain.
Therefore I think this back row will get a lot more time together
(Will be interesting to see how Haskell performs when he returns to England)

9 is a bit of a problem.
Care appears to be falling foul of some off the pitch problems, which will probably stop him getting picked.
Youngs isn't playing his best, Dickson looks a good option, but had a slightly problematic first 20, Simpson isn't really on form and is injured.
But the good thing is that they're all young, and good players won't be out of form for long.

Farrell, Barritt and Tuliagi seem to play to their game plan very well.
Farrell's composure is very impressive, and again he is still very young, so is likely to add more to his game as time goes on.
I think he and Flood will push each other on for the next year or 2, with other youngsters coming into the mix
My biggest worry is that Flood and Farrell are quite different types of Fly half, therefore to change from one to the other may require a complete change of tactics.

While people question Barritt's distribution skills, his defence is absolutely top drawer.
He also appears to have a good strength in contact giving the forwards a good target.
We've had plenty of worse inside centres over the last few years.

While I think that Tuilagi is far from the finished article, I also believe that he would likely make it into the International squad of most other nations.
Certainly in the Northern Hemisphere.
He has pace, power, defence, strength and good vision.
As with the rest of the squad, he is still very young, and hopefully will develop better distribution skills as time goes on, which will truly make him a very very good player.


Our back 3 has done very little in this tournament, potentially because of the lack of distribution from our centres.
However, they all have bags of pace, and on the whole, good finishing skills.
Given a chance, I'm sure they'd be scoring.
I'm a little worried by Ashton though. This time last year, he was scoring for fun in an England shirt, albeit primarily only from Inside passes from Flood.
However, he was popping up all over the park.
This year his work rate appears to be a lot lower. That may be part of his instructions, or maybe some disinterest, or maybe as a result of the Northampton / Sarries issue.
Either way, he needs to sort it out if he is to keep his position.



All in all, it's an extremely young team, who should only get better the more they play together.
I'd like to see some more creative backs moves, especially from set plays.
However, it is really good to see our pack hold their own against some top opposition (France / Italy / Wales) as that had certainly been going backwards in the last couple of years.

I think there is more to come from this team, and in the grand scheme of things, they pushed Wales all the way.
Wales just beat Ireland, and France weren't far behind them either.
I think the top 4 teams in the NH are very close at the moment, with Wales just leading the way.
But as an England supporter, I feel that there is more improvement to come from this England side as they begin to gel better, which I hope will see us overtake and pull away from the other NH nations.

+'s

Graham Rowntree is a serious coach.
Hes got the front row powering in the scrums and rampant in the loose. Hes getting Croft playing to his strengths and the pack on a whole powering,

We have a steel about us...no team will beat us physically and we wont give up.

Farrel is the big divider....both awesome and worrying. His lack of offensive ability concerns me.

Very nice article

From the end of the World Cup to where they are now (only losing narrowly to the grand slam champs), you have to say that its been an excellent tournament for England.

Although they looked inexperienced in the opening games, they have now started to look like a great team for the future.

Still things to work on (still not exciting enough for my liking) but they have time to build on a solid foundation laid down by Lancaster.

When building a new team, I always feel that it is easier to start off by building a solid, defensive platform, and work on attacking ability afterwards.

If you start with attacking intent, without having a good defensive platform, too many games are lost by half time, and your attacking intent counts for nothing.

By getting a good defensive platform in place first, you can win some games, and gradually filter in the attacking plays at a later date.
Or so I hope

What has been great has been the way the new guys have developed even over these last few weeks. Barritt is a great example - started by tackling everything in sight - now hes starting to attack with the ball with increasing confidence.

Think Wasps has got it spot on.

Someone compared it to building a new house, you have to put the basic foundations in place first (Defence, Setpiece, forwards etc) before you add the finishing touches and gloss (flair). By getting the basic foundations in place you allow the team a chance to win each game if they take their chances, which this young side have done. Hopefully in time we will see more attacking flair and i hope the RFU appoint Lancaster as full time coach but get in a specialised attack coach. My first choices would be either Wayne Smith or John Kirwan (though if he would take attack coach after applying for head coach is another matter), someone from the SH to really add an offloading and flair game. We have the players for it, they just need to be utilised better.