Jeremy Guscott’s verdict on England

As thoughts turn to New Zealand do you judge Chris Robshaw‘s team on their first half performance or that inexplicably poor performance after the break? I’m going to accentuate the positive but I would add that if England are serious in their intention of overtaking South Africa as the number two team in the world they simply cannot go AWOL like that. Having built a platform and gained the upper hand England need to finish the job in style and go in search of tries.
England’s intent and tempo were good in the first half as they turned down a few penalties and went for the corner. There was excellent work from Dylan Hartley, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood going forward – they were at the heart of England’s performance and it was no coincidence that the in-form Saints contingent led from the front. Hartley’s lineout throwing was accurate and, for me, he has nudged ahead of Tom Yongs for the New Zealand game. There isn’t much to choose anywhere in the front row but I would also opt for Alex Corbisiero on account of his better scrummaging.
Billy Vunipola has made a slow start to his international career in my opinion. You look at that England teamsheet and you would think he would be England’s strongest ball carrier but so far it hasn’t worked like that. Indeed probably the only bright spot of England’s second half was a much more livelier-looking peformance from Ben Morgan which he topped off with a late try. That now becomes a very close call at No.8 and Morgan might edge it.
England’s backs are still not firing properly and, yes I know they are young, and to a certain extent, what with injuries, they have a makeshift look. That doesn’t excuse some of the slow, looping ill directed passes that slowed them up. There was one backline move early in the game when Chris Ashton could have put the kettle on and made a cuppa and still been waiting for the ball. Ashton got back on the scoreline and that will be a boost. He is working hard but he is still not at his best. He blew an earlier chance in the first half when he stepped inside and got caught a foot short – he would have scored in his sleep a few years ago.
But do you make changes for New Zealand, of all teams? The backline generally don’t seem ‘together’ yet so I’m not sure that throwing new faces in at this late stage is the answer. It’s probably best to hope that the unit you have gone with really clicks when confronted with the ultimate challenge. If Christian Wade has overcome his hamstring strain I would probably take a punt and include him over Ashton but I am not expecting England to do that. They will aim for continuity – and a better more accurate performance.
England will lift themselves and find a new level, if you can’t do that playing in front of an 82,000 Twiickenham crowd against New Zealand you never will and this group at least have the mometum of two useful wins under their belt. The step up will be huge though.  New Zealand can perform at two or three levels above anything we have seen at Twickenham so far this autumn.
Being New Zealand it won’t be a case of avenging last November’s defeat, they don’t operate like that. What will be driving New Zealand next Saturday will be their usual pride in the shirt and a determination not to be part of a New Zealand team that loses at Twickenham. As ever they will play it close to the edge and play the referee to his limit but that is what great teams do and there is no mileage in England fans complaining about that.  Remember England’s World Cup winning team of ten years ago had Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back on board – don’t think England didn’t test the offiicals to the very limit on offsides and decisions at the contact area,
New Zealand do it so cleverly. Yes they are allowed to get away with way too many penalty offences in their own 22 when they are under pressure but they are only reacting to what they are allowed to get away with. If a referee did start pinging them and issuing yellow cards the All Blacks would immediatley modify their approach and cut down the penalties, or potential penalties, because that is what good rugby sense would tell them to do. They are very clever and professional in what they do.
There will be an excitement and buzz in the England camp this week and they need to feed off that but they also need to remind themselves what they did so well against the All Blacks last year.That was all about quick ball, precision in everything they did and no confusion at anytime.
There was a fluidity about their play. Everybody was singing from the same hymsheet and the execution from start to finish was nigh on perfect.
In short England did a New Zealand on the All Blacks. Clarity of mind, keeping it simple and doing the basics supremely well. Get into that mindset, start dictating the game and take it from there. England reached a level last year which they have certainly not approached subsequently. Now would be a good time to rediscover that magic.