'It’s harsh saying it but I’m speaking facts and truths on El-Abd'

Retired out-half Andy Goode has insisted that Joe El-Abd is the wrong fit for Steve Borthwick’s England and has called on the head coach to properly explained why he lost the services of Felix Jones.

Irishman Jones handed in his notice in August just weeks after touring New Zealand and Japan with the English. The two-time Rugby World Cup winner with South Africa was told he would have to work out his notice period remotely, resulting in Borthwick recruiting El-Abd from Oyonnax, the Pro D2 strugglers, for the Autumn Nations Series.

An old university friend, El-Abd was an usher at Borthwick’s wedding but his honeymoon as part-time England defence coach (he will only start full-time next summer once his club commitments end) ended quickly as a dozen tries were conceded in the November losses to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

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England managed to end their five-game winless streak with a win over Japan last Sunday, but that success hasn’t changed Goode’s opinion that El-Abd is the wrong recruit, especially when answers are still needed over why Jones quit just eight months after his recruitment from the Springboks.

Appearing on The Rugby Pod, the show he co-hosts with retired Scotland lock Jim Hamilton, Goode insisted: “I don’t think Joe El-Abd is the right man for the job. He has got the job because he is Steve’s mate and he is a coach and they needed a stop-gap after Felix Jones jumped ship.

 

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“The big thing for me, and you’re looking at Conor O’Shea and Bill Sweeney as the people that are going to be formulating these decisions reviewing the Autumn Nations, where is the questions being asked about actually why did Felix Jones leave? Why did Aled Walters leave?

“You have got two of the best in the world and it has all been like, ‘No, we’ll just sweep it under the carpet, we won’t say anything’. Steve has got a responsibility to answer those questions and Steve has got another responsibility of saying, ‘Right, now they have gone, what is the best plan of action?’

“Joe El-Abd isn’t the best plan of action for England to be their defensive coach. I have said it time and time again, a lack of experience in that coaching team, the team copies that and has a lack of experience. There is no big voice to help the players in tough times and that is why we have lost three games and five on the spin.

“We beat Japan but Joe El-Abd is still going to be Oyonnax’s head coach over the Six Nations; it’s just doesn’t work. I don’t think he has the coaching pedigree to lead England’s defence.

“I do think you can have hammer defence, as they call it, mixed with an up-and-up and an up-and-out and the best teams will be able to defend scenarios in different ways. England defend every scenario with, ‘Let’s fly off the line, blitz in, try to smash them and hope for the best’. That’s what it feels like as a fan and a pundit watching it.

“We saw the try Japan scored where there is a big hole between George Martin and Chandler Cunningham-South. Cunningham-South steps in because that is the system but it’s not the right decision to step in which leaves a big gap between him and George Martin. George Martin is worried about the width as well and then doesn’t have the time to step in to make the tackle and they score.

“We’ll get carved up by way better teams than Japan if we continue on this process of always just blitzing or always just having a hammer defence coming at you. Joe El-Abd isn’t the man and shouldn’t be coaching England’s defence because he is Steve’s mate. It’s harsh saying it but I’m speaking facts and truths and that’s what I think – and therefore they will probably do the opposite and give him a contract extension.”

Asked to rate England’s entire four-match November series, Goode added: “I’m going to say a five out of 10 because there has been some reasonable parts but there has been some huge errors from the coaching team, individual errors on the pitch which have kind of mirrored the coaching team’s lack of experience.

“Take Ben Earl, for example. He has had some brilliant moments over the autumn; he has had some real poor moments as well and he said it himself, that he lost sleep over missing that tackle on Damian de Allende, which had a big impact on that (South Africa) game. The no-arms tackle against New Zealand had a big impact on that game as well.

“Those individual errors, they’re not repetitive, they are different errors made regularly which means you are backing up error on error but with a different mistake, a different lack of discipline. It’s hard the to pinpoint one or two things and it shows there is a lot more wrong than perhaps there is right.

“But there is a lot of positivity around some of the players and how we performed for patches of those games. So five out of 10. Is it a disaster, it is a crisis? No. That Scotland victory puts our performance against Australia under the spotlight and go, ‘Scotland are way better than us’. It’s not back to the drawing board for England but it is for defence.”