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'If they lose, it's terminal and they have to make changes': Dallaglio
By Josh Raisey
Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio has backed England to beat France at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday, saying it is “terminal” if Steve Borthwick’s side do not register a win.
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England will arrive at their HQ on Saturday under immense pressure having lost the opening round of the Guinness Six Nations against Ireland- their seventh loss in nine Tests. Meanwhile, they will be hosting a France side that backed up an unbeaten autumn campaign with a 43-0 demolition of Wales.
Speaking on the Stick to Rugby podcast, both Dallaglio and David Flatman expect England to be victorious in London, with the former prop adding that there will be a “desperation” to the side.
Should England’s poor luck against top-ranked teams continue though, the World Cup winner believes “changes” will have to be made.
“The reality is, we’ve lost seven of nine, we’ve beaten Japan twice and that’s all,” the former No.8 said. “Where does this team go from here? Because you can’t be making costly errors – high balls, missing tackles. I’m not saying the gameplan is wrong, but we’re not winning Test matches and at some point we have to start asking the questions.
“I said if we lost to Ireland, it won’t be the worst result in the world, but if we lose to Ireland and France at home- you start losing games at Twickenham, it starts to become terminal.
“I’m going to be bold and say that England will win. I think if they lose it’s terminal and they have to make changes. I think England have to win one of their first two games.
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Flatman agreed, adding: “There has to be a desperation. There will be. France weren’t tested [against Wales] and they still look like a good team with some exceptional individuals and England will have had a defensive kick up the arse and won’t miss those one-on-ones and they’ll beat France.”
Former England fly-half Katy Daley-Mclean was less convinced, however, saying: “I don’t see how England’s bench competes with that French bench.”
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I think the ultimatum given to Borthwick should be:
1) get at least 14 table points.
2) finish the 6N ranked at least 6th in the world or higher.
Those are very low bars. England should be doing much much better. But Borthwick has assembled a really young - and still inexperienced team. I don't buy that that's any sort of excuse for how bad the results have been, but it does mean that Borthwick might be a better man to take that squad forward than many assume.
Its also not clear who else would come in. I'd like to see either Van Graan or Dowson, but both have very similar (or slightly worse) CVs than Borthwick did when he came in, so not sure they'd do any better. Michael Cheika's name seems to be on a lot of lips, and could be a great person to come in and quickly turn around England's results, but he doesn't seem to be a guy who can build long-term success. O'Gara might also be able to do a job, but I think he looks to be a riskier proposition now that there's been a slide in results for La Rochelle. Similarly Lancaster and Rowntree might be good, but they haven't looked like world beaters as of late. The ideal would be to pay either Farrell or Erasmus 87 trillion pounds to come over, but I don't see that happening.
Check out Wibble Rugby’s latest YT offering for his take on where England are heading.
Framed from a defensive standpoint, but speculates on long-term direction.
https://youtu.be/2_lzE1GVxXU?si=30j6CATF10zWx7p2
Makes sense. Being desperate is a good strategy for beating a team that’s better than you.
To be fair, I started asking the questions a year ago already.
I said, England needs to beat Ireland. If they didn’t they certainly wouldn’t have much of a chance against France - who are looking on top form!
Wrong way around.
Did Dallaglio only start watching this English team play rugby last week? When is England going to start Winning games at Twickenham more like it!
Maybe England will put up a good desperate fight - but they are nowhere near the quality of France. Laughable to think that England’s going to better in a week. And that France couldn’t beat them at Twickenham after Australia did a few months ago. Delusional.
France may be the strongest Team in the world right now.
England are not a top 4 Team. Losing to two top 4 teams is not terminal.
They’re number 7. So yes.
A loss (inevitable for some) coupled with a coherent, 80-minute performance, with around five or six 8/10 performances, a good, penalty-free showing from the bench and a robust defensive effort with no individual schoolboy errors may buy Borthwick some time.
Until Scotland beats them too