There have been shipwrecked castaways on uninhabited Pacific islands who have awoken with more optimism than English rugby supporters are experiencing. Short of a bare-chested Tom Hanks joining them in the dressing room after the 30-22 home defeat by Fiji on Saturday, England’s World Cup hopes could hardly feel more washed up and the chances of a dramatic late rescue continue to recede.
First and foremost, sincere congratulations are due to the Fijians for a result that, on one level, ranks alongside Japan’s win against South Africa in 2015 as the most encouraging scoreline the global game has witnessed. The decades of Pacific rugby nations being undervalued, exploited and patronised by their supposed superiors have been depressing but, at long last, the playing fields of the world are levelling up.
Even so, from the perspective of the Rugby Football Union the weekend Twickenham tsunami has swept away the last few planks of dignity to which the English game was clinging. Fiji has fewer than a million inhabitants spread across more than 300 islands and, despite crucial extra funding from World Rugby, their financial resources remain minuscule compared with those of their more pampered European cousins.
Yet it is Fiji who will now sit at seventh in the new world rankings with England, uniquely, looking up at them. As the All Blacks also found out against South Africa on Friday night, the old certainties are dissolving. It makes it all the more vital for every union to re-examine their developmental pipelines, maximise the talent they do possess and make smart decisions to avoid being left behind.
Which is where England now find themselves, on and off the field. There are still those in denial, insisting everything is broadly OK and that, courtesy of a favourable draw so soft and cushy it might have been lined with the finest duck down, Steve Borthwick’s team will still fetch up in the World Cup semi‑finals if they emerge from their slumbers even momentarily. Or as Ellis Genge pithily wrote on social media: “Write us off now, all the best.”
Fair play to Genge, clearly keen to promote a siege mentality, but the people losing faith in droves are those who ultimately pay his wages. England fans are sick and tired of unimaginative dross ostensibly served up as world-class entertainment, often at inflated prices. Longstanding debenture seat holders are choosing not to renew and six defeats in nine games under Borthwick this year is not a great advert for risk-free pragmatism.
The blame, though, does not sit entirely with a relatively new coaching panel, even if Simon Raiwalui has boosted Fiji’s fortunes since taking charge in February. As with Hymenoscyphus fraxineus – or ash dieback as it is more commonly known – the Twickenham rot set in a while earlier. A failure to rein in Eddie Jones’s wilder excesses, questionable management of England’s age-grade pathways, a lack of clear vision for the competitive levels beneath the Premiership and a lack of hard-nosed rugby nous in high places have all left the English game as exposed as it has ever been.
Fresh direction and leadership are essential but that first requires those presently at the helm to accept some accountability. Bill Sweeney, the RFU’s famously well‑remunerated chief executive, is a hard worker but his background has been in sports marketing when, in truth, English rugby needs a specialist structural engineer.
There is an obvious gap for someone with a top-end grasp of how to build for long-term success in international rugby union and create the necessary models. Rassie Erasmus, Joe Schmidt, Steve Hansen and Sir Clive Woodward are perhaps the four highest-profile candidates for such a role, although Ireland have already been courting the first two names on that list.
Something has to change. On Sweeney’s watch, the national team have lost for the first time against a side outside the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, endured a record home defeat and three successive mediocre Six Nations campaigns while three Premiership clubs have also collapsed. There were at least 25,000 unsold seats on Saturday for the supposed big World Cup send-off and conditions for fans trying to use Twickenham station after the Friday evening fixture were even more shambolic than usual.
Back on the field, the bottom of the thesaurus is being scraped to find new ways to describe England’s defensive porosity, with 30 tries now conceded in nine Tests. Tackling an onrushing Semi Radradra and his friends is no fun but this is international rugby and certain things are non-negotiable. Only last year, however, one of the team’s erstwhile coaches confided that England’s problem was simple: they didn’t have enough Pacific island muscle available to them. With the exception of Bundee Aki, it doesn’t seem to be a huge issue for, say, Ireland.
Enough with the excuses. England can still squeeze past Argentina, Japan and Samoa in their pool but only if they go in with a properly dynamic, hard‑carrying No 8, a hooker who can throw in accurately, a more positive gameplan and a fierce desire to set the record straight. Their summer fitness work may yet pay dividends and there are some signs of progress with their mauling.
But if they were to end up facing Fiji again in a World Cup quarter-final in October, who would win? And might the Pumas and Samoa have curtailed their campaign before they even get that far? English rugby urgently needs rescuing – from itself as much as anything – before it is cast away indefinitely.
