England need a back-up plan to counter their forward failings

Chris Jones
9 Nov 2009

England's coaches have just one week to improve a team that showed too many flaws while losing 18-9 to Australia and will not be worrying a combative Argentine side, who they face at Twickenham on Saturday.

Team manager Martin Johnson must demand a huge improvement from John Wells, the forwards coach, and scrum expert Graham Rowntree along with defence coach Mike Ford if they are to give backs coach Brian Smith any quick ball to work with against the Pumas and create much needed momentum before the arrival of New Zealand on 21 November.

It is impossible to give a verdict on Smith's area of expertise because the back line was starved of any good ball by an England pack that, despite two weeks in camp before the Wallaby match, looked under-powered in every phase, except the line out. The only forward who lived up to his billing was flanker Lewis Moody.

One area where Smith must act is to restrict the constant switching of the hugely impressive Jonny Wilkinson and the inconsistent Shane Geraghty in the No10 role.

It was a confusing element to the afternoon and one that Mike Catt, who was Wilkinson's right-hand man in the England team and played alongside and coached Geraghty at London Irish before he headed to Northampton in the summer, could not understand.

Catt said: "Shane's kicking tactics made no sense - it drove me crazy. I would also like to see Jonny controlling the ball more in the No10 position. I know it's the fashion for the No10 and No12 to switch around and that's fine if you're Matt Giteau. But Geraghty isn't Giteau and so I want Jonny to be controlling affairs from almost all phases of play."

Of course, Geraghty wouldn't be the first choice No12 if Riki Flutey was fit, while Dan Hipkiss is at outside centre because Mike Tindall's hamstring is dodgy and Louis Deacon is trying to fill the void left by Simon Shaw.

These three players would surely have made a major impact against Australia but their absence cannot be used as an excuse for what was offered by the England team.

Australia were also missing their first choice centre combination in Berrick Barnes and Stirling Mortlock, along with veteran lock Nathan Sharpe, but the men on duty at Twickenham were far more influential stand-ins than England could muster.

Why? Patently, the rugby being played at Super 14 and Tri-Nations levels is continuing to produce players who can move straight into the Test arena without looking short of time and space to showcase their talents.

It helped that the Wallabies were playing the second half on the front foot, producing quick ball from the break down and running straight and hard in attack. It all contrasted starkly with the laboured efforts of the England team until - quite naturally - things opened up in the final quarter as a flurry of replacements disrupted matters, allied to the onset of fatigue in those who had played the entire match.

England's coaches staff would be wrong to dismiss the impact scrum half Paul Hodgson, flanker James Haskell and prop Duncan Bell made just because they benefited from the ground work others had undertaken because their intensity and appetite was impressive. Hodgson is a terrier of a scrum half, constantly badgering his pack and linking smoothly with his No10.

Against Argentina, England have to let Hodgson and Wilkinson control matters and ask Haskell and Bell to run with the same impact from the first minute.