If ever there was a sequence of events to sum up England’s current strife, it happened on Friday morning, in the labyrinthine Stade Vélodrome, the day before their World Cup campaign begins with a mixture of anticipation, relief that it finally gets under way, and dread, because, well, that should be obvious by now.
The team bus arrived for England’s final training session and Steve Borthwick was first off, marching towards the changing rooms, not even blinking – you wonder when he last did – a million thoughts colliding all at once. An hour or two later a clutch of his players ambled through the bowels of the stadium and found themselves wandering apprehensively towards the press room. In other words, totally lost.
Borthwick has been doing his utmost to lead England into the World Cup with conviction ever since his appointment in December but, for a wealth of reasons, his players just haven’t been able to follow. He spoke of bringing clarity the day he was appointed – and has done plenty since – but his team look nothing but confused on the field. And so England stumble into the tournament on Saturday. There has been plenty of fighting talk this week, expressions of confidence that everything will be all right on the night, but there has been an edginess to England’s management over the past few days.
You have to feel a degree of sympathy for Borthwick. The chance to coach England was an offer he couldn’t refuse but it must also be said he has played the hand he was dealt poorly. Precisely how and why England have gone from 2019 runners-up, fielding the youngest ever team in a World Cup final, to such rank outsiders four years later has been covered in these pages but supporters have arrived in Marseille with hope only flickering in their hearts.
The reasons to believe in England do not stack up against the weight of evidence of Borthwick’s tenure to date. That England perform better with their backs to the wall, that Aled Walters has been working his magic and knocking the players into shape to peak on Saturday, that the gameplan will finally click, that the senior members of the squad will perform on the biggest stage, that they could follow in the footsteps of the class of 2007, that the ageing veterans at Borthwick’s disposal, the 12 in the 23 who line up against Argentina having appeared in the 2019 World Cup final, will finally deliver.
To be blunt, it all sounds a lot like wishful thinking. The evidence in front of our eyes, all the way through a dismal warm-up campaign, is that until England demonstrate they can manage even the fundamentals of the sport with an urgency befitting the only side from the northern hemisphere to win the World Cup, they are going nowhere fast.
Argentina are favourites forSaturday’s match and though England have won all three previous meetings at World Cups, this is the strongest side the Pumas have ever brought to the tournament. In the back-five of the scrum alone they field Matías Alemanno, Tomás Lavanini, Pablo Matera, Marcos Kremer and Juan Martín González. If that fearsome quintet has the impact it is capable of it is hard to see England coping. That Michael Cheika has battened down the hatches recently, been only too happy to keep his counsel, belies a confidence in Argentina’s camp.
It is easy to forget that England are the top seeds in this pool, even more so that Argentina are third (Japan are second) and though it is a cliche to say that the most important game of the tournament is the first one, or the next one, rarely has it rung more true than in England’s case. Lose it and panic is likely to set in. The “circling vultures” that Jonny May spoke of this week will start to feast.
Find a way to win it, though, and the sigh of relief will be heard 600 miles away in Le Touquet – England’s base camp in northern France. A quarter-final place would not be a given but it would become far more attainable. If they are to achieve it, then improvements must be made across the board. Defensively they were dismal in their last match against Fiji – missing 27 tackles – and the hope is that Tom Curry’s return will improve matters. “Ultimately it’s down to how many tackles you make,” he said, in a manner that suggests he will make more than his fair share on Saturday.
In an attacking sense they must take huge strides so a lot rests on the shoulders of the scrum-half Alex Mitchell to provide George Ford with enough quick ball to unlock his backline. In order to do that, the forwards must match Argentina’s physicality and it would help if England could keep all 15 players on the field.
More than that, though, they need to be clear on their sense of identity. You rarely hear Argentina talked about without reference to their passion, their pride in the badge and to get a sense of why, just watch their players when the national anthem is playing shortly before kick-off on Saturday. England’s players are no less passionate but there is a complexity to showing national pride given the connotations of waving a St George’s flag too enthusiastically. It was an issue Stuart Lancaster sought to solve and Eddie Jones after him but if England are to confound low expectations in France, to make themselves easier for supporters to back, they must find clarity (that word again) as to what their identity is.
“We’ve seen how England gets behind their national teams and we want to produce rugby that will get the country behind us,” said Maro Itoje. “And as I’ve gotten older and been able to have probably a more up-to-date understanding of how things go and how it captivates the country, it’s something special.” England are a long way from captivating the country at present but start finding their way on Saturday and supporters may just start emerging from behind the sofas.
