Jeremy Guscott’s verdict on England: England are growing into World Cup contenders

England took another major step towards being genuine World Cup contenders with this dogged, back to the walls display against Joe Schmidt’s vastly experienced and in-form Ireland team.
It was intriguing to see what influence Schmidt might be trying to bring to the Ireland attack and how the midfield trio of Jonathan Sexton, Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll would cause England trouble. And it didn’t take too long to see that their game-plan had changed considerably from the Wales victory. In the whole of that match, Ireland passed the ball just over 100 times. In the first half yesterday they were already up around the 90 mark.
And it wasn’t just consigned to throwing the ball about in England’s 22. Sexton was happy to pass the ball along the line a lot more in his own half in stark contrast to the tactic employed against Wales.
Previously, their exit strategy was through both half-backs Conor Murray and Sexton putting up contestable kicks – and then winning the aerial battle, heaping even more heat on the Welsh defence.
But against England they didn’t do this and continually tried to pass their way out of their half. On a couple of occasions Sexton even tried to chip the ball from his own 22 – a very dangerous ploy.
To me, it is equivalent to kicking away possession in the opposition 22.
To kick, you have to be creating at least a 50:50 opportunity of scoring a try in the opponents’ red zone, and similarly, if you do the same thing in your own 22 to exit, you need to have a good chance to win the ball back. And it was those small margins that were the difference in this match.
England built up a lot of early pressure and it was a big moment when Jonny May lost possession in placing the ball over the line. He will learn and I have no doubt he will come back stronger next time, but England cannot afford to create these great chances and then mess them up. In the build up to May’s chance there was so much space out wide they just had to pass it through the hands and he would have had a walk in rather than having to smash through a couple of tackles.
But England showed a lot of character to put that frustration behind them – and to stay in the game after Rob Kearney’s incredibly well-worked try at the start of the second half.
Sexton ran one way, dragging defenders with him, Paul O’Connell dislodged Joe Launchbury and Peter O’Mahony pushed over a few more players before Heaslip stood up the defender and Kearney ran through a huge gap.
It was a training ground move executed to perfection and nothing less than Ireland deserved in that period when they had the momentum – after a silly Jack Nowell penalty led to that field position.
England’s try was also the result of a unforced error when Sexton kicked straight to touch from a re-start and from the resultant lineout it was a lovely try made by Harlequins – Chris Robshaw’s neat inside flick to the charging Mike Brown who had picked a tremendous line before drawing Kearney and feeding Danny Care for the 30m run in.
The spirit of this squad cannot be underestimated and they showed great determination to fight back. But at 13-10 – with memories fresh of England chucking the lead away against France – there was still a worry that Ireland would earn a penalty and force a draw.
However the character, will and effort of every single England player to make those tackles in the crucial last 10 minutes was something else – epitomised by Joe Launchbury’s desperate tap-tackle on Dave Kearney.
If the Wasps lock hadn’t managed to get to him there could have been a try on the cards and another sensational ending. But he did and that typified the England performace.
That team grew up a lot yesterday; but it’s important not to get too carried away because it is not certain that England will beat Wales in a fortnight. Their performance against France was superb and to bounce back after the Ireland defeat impressed me. They had the rocket from Warren Gatland and responded in style.
Wales will in no way fear England – they’ve won both matches over the last two years – and they know how to win at Twickenham. Farrell may well be targeted for his occasional petualance and he really needs to stay away from these incidents that could at some stage cost his team dear.
He is a sparky guy and you don’t want to drive that out of his character, but his late shoulder challenge on Murray could have earned him a yellow card which meant he wouldn’t have been on the field to kick the goal minutes later.
It’s a case of risk and reward and I hope Farrell learns when to get involved and when not to.
That aside, Farrell looked the part again and kicked his penalties superbly. However the England attack changed shape this week, compared to the previous two matches. It may have been a change of ploy to keep Ireland guessing, but England will need to revert to having two lines of attack against Wales.
It was a huge defensive performance – now England must be as ruthless in attack and make their opportunities count. They left a couple of tries out there against Scotland, one against France. Last year 11 of the 15 matches ended with a points difference of 10 or fewer and England know a team like Wales can score 10 points in a blink of an eye.
The pack stood up well without Dan Cole and credit is due to Davey Wilson for lasting 70 minutes. I was happy to see Henry Thomas come on and lock out a couple of scrums – one in particular against Cian Healy who looked to have the edge over Wilson – and it’s great to be able to trust Thomas to come on a do a job.
I can’t see the team changing ahead of the Wales match, although Billy Vunipola looks a doubt with a badly injured ankle – but England shouldn’t lose much in the power stakes with Ben Morgan, who impressed again.
Stuart Lancaster‘s boys are in a good position. They’ve achieved what they wanted after the France defeat but there is so much at stake against Wales: can they repay them for last year’s Millennium Stadium smashing and put down a marker before the next Twickenham showdown at the 2015 World Cup.