Henry Slade believes England have taken significant strides to fix their defensive frailties on the basis that “we know what we’re doing”, with the players adopting a more hands-on approach following a disappointing autumn.
Slade is the first senior player to admit England had difficulties getting up to speed during a “rushed” transition to the defensive system employed by Joe El-Abd, who was parachuted into the setup for the November international series after the shock resignation of Felix Jones.
Jones had implemented an ultra‑aggressive blitz system when he took up the role of defence coach a year ago and it was blossoming by the summer, only for the Irishman to quit Steve Borthwick’s regime. During the autumn, England players seemed confused with some sticking by Jones’s principles in what the squad refer to as “the Hammer”, while others appeared less committed to the all‑or‑nothing approach.
Since then, El-Abd has returned to Oyonnax as he continues his job‑share arrangement until the end of the season but he has been putting the squad through their paces at England’s training camp in Girona before their Six Nations opener against Ireland on Saturday. Slade believes there is “a lot more clarity” with the players taking a degree of ownership.
“There’s been a lot more emphasis on players also helping out with reviewing it and leading it as well, and I think that’s only helped us,” Slade said. “Joe has his own ideas and what he wants to do and there has been definite input from some of us as players in terms of how we do it as well.“We have had a lot of good conversations with each other and it feels like everyone is on the same page. We know what we are doing. That’s a real step forward. Him [Joe] having that extra bit of time is only going to be good because it was pretty rushed the last time he came in. I definitely feel there’s a lot more clarity on that front.
“When you run up that Hammer, there’s so many moving parts to it and everything’s got to be right on to get it right. There’s a lot of small areas where if one thing’s not right everything else suffers. What you saw in there wasn’t just one thing that wasn’t making things happen. Every now and again there was something that wasn’t quite right, which led to everything else, a knock-on effect. It’s hard to say exactly what the problem was, because it was probably different most times.”
Slade was tight-lipped as to precisely how England’s defence will differ during the Six Nations but it is expected there will be less emphasis on blitzing, even if Borthwick wants his players to maintain aggressive line speed. Slade, who starred in England’s last victory in Dublin in 2019, said: “We’re always trying to evolve the D and find ways to take it forwards and improve things. Obviously, I’m not going to say on record what we’re doing, but we’re definitely trying to do that. We still want to be aggressive and we still want to be in the opposition’s face and putting skills under pressure and going hard.
“We’ve looked at a few areas where we could potentially evolve it and change a couple of bits. We still want to be going off the line and doing some damage there. What we were doing before was very hit or miss. We’re still a line-speed team and we’re still going after players, but hopefully we can give ourselves every opportunity to keep making these tackles and keep staying alive.”
England head to Dublin on the back of six defeats in their past eight matches but they did beat Ireland in the championship last year thanks to a last-gasp drop goal by Marcus Smith.
Simon Easterby’s team are clear favourites, however, with the England No 8 Ben Earl seeking to temper expectations. “It is an opportunity to play against arguably the best team in the world, against some of the best players in the world in certain positions,” he said. “We just can’t wait to try to put into place some of the preparation we have been doing.“We will know we will have prepared as well as we could and we know we are still on a journey of where we are as a team. But it would be really nice to win, for sure, but we will see what happens. We are going to try our best and we are not ignorant to the task in hand.”
