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'Their skill execution was absolutely atrocious': Irish pundits pick apart England's loss
By Ben Smith
Scotland’s golden run over England continued with a fourth consecutive Calcutta Cup win at Murrayfield as Steve Borthwick’s side showcased a litany of errors.
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A hat-trick to star winger Duhan van der Merwe powered Scotland to a 30-21 victory as the home side made the visitors pay for poor execution.
Despite coming into the game with wins over Italy and Wales, there were still concerns over the state of the England side given the unconvincing form that Borthwick’s side were showing.
Irish TV pundits dissected the performance on Virgin Media Sport which showed England were who everyone thought they were.
“They’re just… if we were going to show you an England errors package, we’d be here for half an hour,” Matt Williams told the Virgin Media Sport panel.
“They just made error after error. And you think, the three Van der Merwe tries were from English errors.
“The error off the scrum, the falcon off the head of [George] Furbank, then an English lineout that was lost that led to the possession for the cross-field kick for his third try.
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“That is just a small picture of the number of errors they made. They dropped restarts, they dropped lineouts, they had Scotland beaten at the scrum and they kept engaging too early. There were four free kicks for early engagement.
“The ill discipline was just ridiculous. The number of passes that just went nowhere, thrown into touch.”
Ex-Ireland international Rob Kearney offered a glass-half full view of England, praising their attempt at playing with more ambition but lambasted their ability to do so.
He said it was the “best” rugby that England have tried to play in a while but absolutely failed at trying to implement it.
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“This is going to sound a bit off the wall, but that’s the best England have tried to play,” the former fullback said.
“The ambition that they showed, the running lines, the phase play, it was really, really good tonight. The best I’ve seen from them in a long time.
“Their skill execution was absolutely atrocious. That’s the reason they lost the game. The amount of times they turned the ball over and handed the ball back to Scotland was atrocious.
“It’s pass handling. All these players can pass a ball, they can catch a ball. It’s something that they can get right. That’s why I’m saying I’m encouraged by the ambition.
Former Ulster outside back Andrew Trimble said it was a case of “beware of what you wish for” from England.
The grass isn’t always greener if you can’t water the lawn. Based on the Calcutta Cup loss, it appears that England can’t back up intent with ability and therefore should stop trying.
“It’s a strangle angle but I 100 per cent see what you mean, they tried, they had the intention of playing more rugby,” Trimble said.
“But be careful what you wish for. Everybody, everywhere has been saying this English side is capable of playing more rugby.
“Well maybe they’ve proved tonight they are not capable. When they are at their best, when they are ahead, they put you under pressure through the kicking game, defence. Make you chase the game.
“Scotland did to them what they’ve been doing to everyone for the last year. Maybe us purists should stop trying to get some rugby out of them.”
Why did we need Ben Smith to write this? I thought this guy did analysis? Kind of thing you read on any standard news site.
Can’t deny how poor england have been and continue to be and there needs to be a serious revamp at who deserves to play rather than picking someone because of who they are
These players are capable of running, passing, catching. They've been playing rugby since they were little kids. To imply that the players are incapable of playing rugby is ridiculous especially when. Trimble then claims that Northampton are better than England. Have you seen Northampton play? Yes, they're full of English players who are running, passing and catching and some of them are in this England team! The problem is, this is not the environment for them to blossom. If you brought in Gregor Townsend, Andy Farrell, Stuart Lancaster or Scott Robertson do you think we'd see such a lack of cohesion in attack and so many basic errors? The players aren't the issue. We've got a heavily stats based coaching team who have built their club successes on kicking and mauling now asking their players to do something totally alien.
Scotland have been successful because Gregor Townsend has a strong personality and their players understand what he wants from them. They're going to throw caution to the wind, leave everything on the pitch and if they make mistakes with the right intent they will be supported. England don't seem to have a clue what they want to do.
Is it any wonder the Skills have deterioted when you realise that Kevin Sinfield is in charge of Skills?
Add to that the sterile attack borne from Richard Wigglesworth and the fact that we are copying another countries defence it starts to make you think that the coaching appointments are flawed. Time for Borthwick to go and being in someone who can revolutionise England's game not just try to replicate a minor success at club rugby?
England were, are, very poor. As they were at the RWC and yet could have easily contested another Final. They’ll get minced by Ireland.
Unfortunately, I have to agree. I have no idea how we've been saying this for the past 5 years, but here we are: we're still waiting for this England team to spark. Yes, the talent is spread amongst a number of clubs, but still, at some stage something surely has to click.