England used up all their luck to come through 13-9 against Argentina and were saved only by Ben Youngs' try
In a game that hauled rugby back to the swamp, England avoided sinking through the bottom of the World Cup. But they were gulping mud against Argentina and this victory will leave a pretty disgusting taste. This was a stinker, saved only by the single try of the match, scored by the replacement scrum-half, Ben Youngs.
The try followed a line-out five metres from the Argentina line, a position gained by a kick to the corner by Jonny Wilkinson when the score stood at 9-3 in Argentina's favour. If the decision to go for a five-metre position rather than a three-point penalty seems brave it arose only because England's kicker, Mr Jonny Precision himself, had missed four kicks at goal.
And if that sounds as if England would have won easily if the second most successful accumulator of points in the history of rugby ? only Dan Carter of New Zealand has scored more ? had not chosen this of all days to lose his guidance systems, then Argentina might point to the five penalties missed by Mart�n Rodr�guez and the one by Felipe Contepomi. Waywardness worked both ways.
If there was one other factor, besides Youngs's timely try, that saved England it was that in the last 10 minutes Argentina finally began to run out of steam. And yet if this was unsurprising in the ranks of a team that had played only one top international match all year prior to this, against Wales, then there was still the sight of them rallying for one final fling at the death, raising themselves for one last burst against a team of supposedly finely tuned professionals. England were not exactly full of zip as they manned their defences for the last time.
Tiredness follows close behind clumsiness, and England were cack-handed from the start. They knocked on, and gave away so many penalties that eventually Dan Cole was sent to the sin-bin. Wilkinson's kicking further deepened the gloom. When Ben Foden finally made a clean break his long pass to Delon Armitage bounced in front of the wing and England found themselves in another fine mess.
Argentina were hardly mothers of a more inventive style, but grappling is what they do and they willingly hauled England into the close encounters of a game played at the pace of a monstrously strong but utterly immobile clam. Besides, what little running there was came from their wing Gonzalo Camacho.
And again, they might refute the charge of being devoted to a slow game and make another point, that two of their most influential players, the fly-half Contepomi and the centre Gonzalo Tiesi, were victims of some pretty crude challenges to their ribs and knee. England might counter by saying that crudity was the only thing they could do with anything approaching efficiency and, mercifully for them, rugby still tolerates a bit of brutishness.
But they will not be able to rely on the formula again. England used up all their luck to wring out this victory. And the game demands a greater array of skills. This was a one-off, a throwback game, but it won't work again.
Of course, England have started badly at World Cups before. In 1991 they lost to New Zealand in their opening game and still made it the final. In fact, so complete was their reversal of form 20 years ago that they really should have beaten Australia in that Twickenham final. Four years ago they were dreadful against the USA in their opening game and even worse against South Africa, but rallied to play the Springboks again.
Wilkinson will not kick as badly again, but is there anything more to come from a pack that can do nothing but win slow ball and dip a shoulder to charge? Not a pass escapes the hands of the England forwards. And now that the outside world has had a good look at Manu Tuilagi, the centre needs to expand his repertoire. Following the forwards' example and running mulishly is not enough.
Foden looked lost. It seriously looks as if England have had enterprise drilled out of them. They were never the most devil-may-care of teams, but this was a blocked-drain display and there's little time to shift the ? well, it stank.
Youngs came on to make a difference, injecting a little vim into the stolid beasts before him. The rumour was that he was struggling on a knee that would not strengthen, but here he was, coming on to the save the day. That is the fast track to full restoration.
Can the entire team follow their No 9? Next come Georgia, hardly light relief. They represent more of the same: a slow-paced game of grappling and grunting. And then even more of the same from Romania.
It is an ongoing diet of soup from the bottom of the swamp and England cannot rely on a replacement and good aerobic conditioning to spare their blushes. Dare they just let rip? That might play straight into the hands of the Scotland, whom they meet in the final pool game. What murky waters are being stirred.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/10/rugby-world-cup-2011-england-stinker
No comments:
Post a Comment