England are out of the World Cup but they signed off with a expected fans pleasing win. We beat Uruguay convincingly on the scorecard 60-3 by the end of the game and the result was never in question. However the performance even though it was pleasing to the eye, could have been better.
England scored 10 tries including hat tricks from Easter & Norwell followed by a brace from Watson. This will show that this was an easy victory especially if a 37 years old can get a hat trick in what has got to be his last England international. However England never really got into the high gears and never needed to.
The team was much changed which I was pleased to see so everyone that didn’t get a run out in the other games got some good game time in this match. This will give them the World Cup buzz and hopefully the desire to work hard to make sure they are in the squad for Japan in four years. The players that were given a run out looked good and those players in the backs had a lot of freedom to throw the ball around and did well when give the chance.
I thought that there was still things that would cause me concern. The big concern for me is still the same old thing that I have been saying for months now and that is turnovers. A team that only has four full time professional’s managed to get more turnovers than a team that was second favourites going into this World Cup. That figure is disgraceful.
As much as I haven’t really decided on what England should do next I do believe that Lancaster will go, as to whether you like him or not, how can the manager of a host nation and supposed superpower in World Rugby survive being knocked out of their home World Cup in the group stages. So whoever comes in after him has to be so hot on discipline and the breakdown. The turnovers was the worse thing against Uruguay by far but I didn’t feel that the penalties conceded were much better. These are two key areas of the game that at the moment we suck at.
Something that was nice to see though, was to see that the lineouts seems to be on the mead. Youngs who has been dodgy for so long on the international stage with his throwing does seem to have connected with Parling and the lineout has started to become a strength again.
Ok so I am going to be brutally honest her. I am not sure about this 10-12 Ford – Farrell partnerships works. But then at the moment I am not sure that Ford works for England at all. Yes I know this is going to be controversial but I don’t think Ford has worked in the last two months, warms up matches included. He has added nothing for me and I would seriously drop him altogether and make Farrell my number for the next few years and build him into a England 10 that can compete with the World best just like they did with Jonny. My back up and game changer off the bench would be Cipriani. Ford is a great club player but for me he hasn’t work internationally.
What about the Six nations I can hear you say. Well yes he was better but the Six nation is different kettle of fish as it is not knock out rugby like our group was, nor was their the pressure of that a World Cup brings and it is rugby with a set of teams that are not the best teams in the world. If England were suppose to be the best in the Northern Hemisphere why were we 2nd again.
However this game was a good performance by England overall. There were smiles from everyone again and a feel good factor. The stand out positive from the World Cup from the English point of view though has been the unyielding support that the team has had from the country. Even though England were out of their own World Cup the fans came out in force and were singing and cheering the whole way through the game. The fans have worn the rose and will always support this team. So bring on the World Cup in 2019. But before that we have to achieve success over the next four Six Nations.
SweetEngland 