England Restore Pride In Defeat

Monday 5 March 2012

Stuart Lancaster's young England side suffered their first loss of the 2012 Six Nations, as Wales claimed a 19-12 victory to seal the Triple Crown. It was a proper test match decided by the finest of margins and England can take great pride from their performance. Here are the key things I picked from the game:

Owen Farrell

Before the game many questioned whether it was too early for the 20 year old to step into the number 10 shirt, well he answered those questions with an emphatic yes. In Farrell England have found a fly-half for the next decade, barring injury. He was at the heart of everything that was positive about this performance.

He controlled the game with his excellent kicking from hand, his deft chip over the defence was a thing of beauty. With ball in hand he was able to bring the bulldozing Manu Tuilagi onto the ball. In defence he was gutsy and brave, and his ice cool temperament saw him land four penalties from the tee. It was a remarkable performance from such a young player

The Midfield

Well this was some battle. Coming into the game the Welsh midfield had been smashing through everything in their path, but they met their match at Twickenham. Brad Barritt and Manu Tuilagi produced an outstanding effort to nullify Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies.

From inside centre Barritt saw more of the ball going forward and made inroads whenever he had the ball. In defence he was heroic, stopping Roberts at source every time the British Lion looked to give his side some momentum.

Tuilagi was like a wrecking ball breaking tackles at will, and only an unbelievable tackle from Sam Warburton stopped the Leicester man scoring in the corner. His defensive discipline was impressive, he rarely flew out of the line and made some crunching hits.

Substitutions

There is no doubt that the substitutions made by Stuart Lancaster changed the game. As soon as England replaced Lee Dickson with Ben Youngs the hosts seemed to lose their tempo and rhythm in attack. Youngs has looked completely out of sorts and is playing with zero confidence. During his 20 minutes on the field he gave away a two silly penalties and this helped the momentum shift in Wales's favour.

But Youngs wasn't alone, Matt Stevens also gave away a needless penalty which allowed Leigh Halfpenny to put three points on the board. Courtney Lawes made his return to test rugby in the second half, he made his presence felt in defence but was crucially stripped by Scott Williams for the match winning try.

Chris Ashton

Having played very little rugby coming into the tournament it was obvious that Chris Ashton was not going to be match sharp, but Lancaster took the decision to try and let the winger play his way into to some form. Sadly this looks to have backfired. Ashton has looked sluggish and seems to have lost the swagger that he had in last year's competition. Some of his decision making with the ball has been very poor and he has stopped looking for work off his wing, which is what made him so dangerous when he came into the team.

Charlie Sharples has had a terrific season at Gloucester and should probably get his chance. Ashton should not be discarded all together, but he needs to find his form before he gets back into the side.

The Breakdown

It has to be said that England competed really well at the breakdown against one of the best back-rows in world rugby. At the ruck England created five turnovers, the same amount as Wales. They may not have a natural seven like Sam Warburton, but the whole of the pack work really hard to try and win the ball in the contact area. Dan Cole in particular stood out, winning a crucial steal near his own line which allowed England to clear to touch. Chris Robshaw probably had his best game up against Warburton and gave his illustrious counterpart a run for his money.

In attack they were able to generate real quick ball, which saw them break through the Welsh defence and cause problems. It was pleasing to see an England side play with intensity at the ruck and produce turnovers and quick ball.

Despite losing to their arch-rivals England restored pride to the famous white jersey on Saturday. If they keep playing that brand of rugby it won't be long before they are on the right end of games like that. The future looks a lot brighter than it did after the World Cup, and Lancaster and his coaches have to take enormous credit for that.