Not for the first time this Six Nations, Eddie Jones was left lamenting a lack of ruthlessness from his side following a nail-biting victory against Wales. It is a word he has used often of late – clinical being another – but so far England have not been able to display enough of a cutting edge in attack to suggest they will finish top of the pile. They remain in the hunt for the title after keeping Wales’s second‑half fightback at bay but it seems clear that improvements must be made if England are to overcome Ireland and France in their final two matches.
In seeking solutions the obvious answer is Manu Tuilagi. It cannot have helped that he was such a late withdrawal because Jones’s attacking gameplan would have had to be drastically redrawn but the wider point is how England struggle without him. Jones is eager to play down his absence – pointing to how England have had to cope for long spells of his tenure without the Sale centre – but that does not tell the whole story because one of the most successful aspects of the 2019 World Cup campaign was how the backroom staff worked wonders to keep Tuilagi in prime condition throughout.
“If you’ve got someone like Manu you can create opportunities in other ways, if you haven’t got Manu you’ve got to find other ways,” said Jones. “This obsession with gameplans and plan A and plan B and who you’ve got and haven’t got… we look at the game. The defence creates opportunities. We believe we’ve got an organisation in our attack that allows us to take opportunities of those chances the defence may give us.”
The fact is, however, that those opportunities are rarely being created, rarer still, finished, and with Tuilagi not out of contention to face Ireland his shadow continues to linger over England’s campaign. For the statistics paint a stark picture and in his absence England managed just two linebreaks on Saturday to Wales’s five. It was a similar story against Scotland, who also made five to England’s three, and it is little wonder given that for all the qualities Henry Slade and Elliot Daly can bring in midfield, gainline punch is not among them.
Indeed, it was a curious sight to see a footballer as gifted as Slade on the crash ball against Scotland and against Wales, and again without Tuilagi England could not make the dents required. Ellis Genge, Alex Dombrandt and Maro Itoje all stepped up in that regard, but Tuilagi’s power and the manner in which he occupies defenders is unrivalled.
“Manu is a top-quality player, there is no one really like him in the world so we were always going to lose that little bit of physicality,” Slade said. “It is challenging, obviously we had a plan of what the side was going to be and then to have it changed at the last minute is going to challenge us but I thought we adapted really well. There is no one else like Manu in the world, he is such a good player at getting you over the gainline, attracting defenders in – he is unreal.
“We may have lost a bit of physicality but Elliot brings other strengths that maybe Manu doesn’t have and I thought the way we recovered and regrouped and went again was really good this week.”
The upshot is that, the 33-0 win in Rome notwithstanding, England have managed two tries in two matches. Marcus Smith has scored 48 of England’s 73 points – or 66% – which on one hand, shows how well he has settled into his first Six Nations campaign, on the other belies England’s inability to make the most of what opportunities they have created. “What we’re not good at now is finishing off half breaks which we’ve got to keep working on,” Jones said.
“That’s the next step in our project. It’s not so much in terms of being clever with our attack, more with staying right if the opportunity is there let’s take it. Increasingly each week we’re getting a little bit better at that.”
Previously Jones has hinted that in an attacking sense England intend to keep something up their sleeve until closer to the World Cup. That argument was made when Simon Amor was the attack coach and the manner in which he was cut adrift following last year’s fifth-place finish suggests it is one that does not carry weight. Nonetheless, Jones is convinced that England will add the layers to their attack that are evidently absent at the moment over the course of the next 18 months. “We’re going to be peaking at the World Cup, we’re quite clear about that.”
On current evidence, much will depend on Tuilagi’s availability if Jones is to be proven right.
