Unlikely lads
England are the Six Nations outsiders who have learnt to win ugly, says Simon Barnes
Getty Images
- Simon Barnes
Rugby Union: Six Nations fixtures this weekend
Ireland v France Saturday 1.25pm (k/o 2.15pm) ITV1, 2.10pm 5 Sports Extra
Scotland v Wales Saturday 4.00pm (k/o 4.45pm) BBC1/S4C, 4.30pm 5 Sports Extra
England v Italy Sunday 2.15pm (k/o 3.00pm) ITV1, BBC Sounds and BBC Sport website and app
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England could win it, you know. That’s not a sentence I expected to be writing about any major tournament this year, let alone the Six Nations rugby union championship. But if a couple of remaining results fall kindly and England manage a pair of bonus point wins against floundering opposition – wooden spoon candidates Italy and Wales – they might just sneak past the winning post ahead of the rest.
England won their past two games by the canny tactic of being completely outplayed. France and Scotland did all the running with the ball that rugby’s supposed to be about, but England still won each match by a single point. Scotland beat England 3–1 in tries, but lost 16–15 on points.
England kicked away possession as if the ball was cursed
England’s next game is at home against Italy and it will be interesting to see how they approach it. Their basic tactic against Scotland was to make sure Scotland had the ball as often as possible. Nearly all the time, in fact. They kicked away 69 per cent of possession, as if the ball was somehow cursed.
Rugby union is unique among ball games in that it’s often a genuine advantage to give the ball away to the opponents – no thanks, you have it, you make the mistake. All teams do it to a greater or lesser extent. Against Scotland, England opted for greater. Much greater. “Is it the type of rugby we want to play? No,” said their head coach Steve Borthwick afterwards.
He was being grilled about this supposedly dull and unenterprising tactic, but surely the bottom line is that England took the victory. Last time I looked, sport was supposed to be about trying to win.
Perhaps we need to redefine “outplayed”. Against Scotland, England made 194 tackles. There were long passages of play in which Scotland had plenty of the ball, but no way through the England defence. Ben Earl, Tom Curry and the captain Maro Itoje were all superb.
But England still find themselves caught up in a non-debate. Shouldn’t they be trying to entertain the punters rather than merely winning matches? Perhaps it would have been more “entertaining” if they’d not tackled so many Scotsmen.
France's captain Antoine Dupont. Getty
No, the England rugby team are not the Harlem Globetrotters, neither were they meant to be. But they’ve found a way to win, twice, against opponents with far greater levels of genius. France’s performance against England in February was bizarre. The time their captain, Antoine Dupont, dropped the ball when clean through might be the defining moment of this year’s Six Nations. You can say as often as you like that Scotland and France both deserved to win – but they didn’t. There isn’t a column in the Six Nations table for “Just Deserts”.
France will travel to Dublin for a showdown with Ireland. This fixture always looked like being the championship decider, but most observers had expected that when these teams faced off, they would be unbeaten.
France cheered themselves up after defeat by England with a merciless performance against Italy in Rome, scoring 73 points. Their fury and dismay at losing at Twickenham might help them further against Ireland, and the Irish certainly looked a touch wobbly in their unexpectedly narrow, nine-point victory over Wales.
But Ireland are at home, and they have James Lowe in their side, the master of elusiveness. His performance on the wing against England was the best attacking play of the championship so far.
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As England move somewhat sheepishly into the role of title dark horses, the more likely winners will be hard at it in Dublin. The French were rattled when they had to play with a wet ball at Twickenham – well, God forbid that it should rain in Ireland.
Authors
Simon BarnesAuthor and journalist
Simon Barnes is a sports and wildlife writer, and is the author of a number of books including the recently published The Green Planet
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