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Tuilagi the scrummager and three other England win talking points
By Liam Heagney
Saturday night was special for England in Marseille. Few people had backed them to deliver, so desperate were the optics of their Summer Nations Series.
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Even Steve Borthwick was booed by the crowd when his name was called out on the stadium PA pre-game, so for his team to dismantle Argentina in the dominant, sublime way that they did despite having just 14 players for 77 minutes was a masterclass in on-field game management.
We’re not entirely convinced England would have won 27-10 if this was a 15-on-15 fixture the whole way through.
The dismissal of Tom Curry after just three minutes to a yellow card that was soon upgraded to red had a profoundly galvanising effect on the remaining England players and the no-nonsense cup tie rugby they soon produced in a backs-to-the-wall result was quite the spectacle.
What Richard Wigglesworth said on Friday turned out to be on the money. The rookie assistant coach, a veteran of previous World Cups as a player, outlined: “If there is anything you can impart on them it is that you don’t regret playing, you don’t regret giving it your best and you don’t regret enjoying it. You regret the other stuff when you have held back, so we don’t want to hold back.”
England’s players sure didn’t hold back and what unfolded was a night to remember, a perfectly timed tonic for much-criticised Borthwick era. Here, RugbyPass addresses some major talking points that have left the rookie Test-level head coach’s team in pole position to top Pool D and make the semi-finals via the weaker side of the draw:
Manu the scrummager
Throwing a back into the England scrum wasn’t unprecedented. Winger Jack Nowell, for instance, went packing down in March 2022 when the forwards were reduced to seven following Charlie Ewels’ red card against Ireland at Twickenham.
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Nowell at the time quipped: “Our pack got a sense of what could happen, so we decided to stick with eight. It was my job to fill in that back row gap. Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes it doesn’t.
“I kept saying to Ellis Genge after each scrum: ‘Was that okay? Are you happy with that?’ The forwards gave me good feedback and the job becomes a lot easier when you have guys like Genge and Kyle Sinckler there, and Courtney Lawes beside me.”
On Saturday night, it was Manu Tuilagi’s turn to improvise, switching from centre to flanker at the set-piece and giving its socks. He was delighted about his cameo, his face beaming with delight when asked in the post-game mixed zone for his impression on life as an emergency back-rower. ”Loved it. I loved it; loved it,” he thrilled.
It turns out he had done it previously in the midst of time, 12 years ago if his memory was spot on, so when scrum coach Tom Harrison sounded him out in the build-up this week, he had no hesitation in volunteering.
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“I think once before. Against Ireland, I think it was 2011; I loved it. So when Tommy was onto me during the week, he was, ‘If something happens, will you get in the scrum?’ I was, ‘Yes. YES!’” What a memory for Tuilagi to treasure: ‘The night I scrummed the Pumas’.
Cobbled-together nine/10 masterstroke
It is fascinating how the cobbled-together England half-back partnership of George Ford and Alex Mitchell became the by-accident-and-not-by-design lynchpin that exposed Argentina once Lawes and co got stuck into their forwards.
Steve Borthwick's response to the cards in Marseille, the red for England flanker Tom Curry and the yellow for Argentina out-half Santiago Carreras. #EnglandRugby #ENGvARG #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/fiUZaksKbf
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 10, 2023
Until two weeks ago versus Fiji, Ford hadn’t started a Test match since March 2021 while Mitchell was axed from the official England training squad for the finals way back on June 30 and was only called in as an emergency on August 14 following Jack van Poortvliet’s cruel ankle injury.
It was Owen Farrell’s suspension that suddenly elevated Ford back into the team, while Mitchell made a mockery of Borthwick’s World Cup scrum-half picks by breezing past Danny Care and Ben Youngs, who had been chosen with van Poortvliet, to grab the No9 shirt for the Rugby World Cup opener on the back of what he did against the Fijians when given a Test start for the first time in his career.
The pair combined sweetly against the Argentinians but you have to wonder would they have been allowed to play as they did if Curry wasn’t sent off and England played on with 15 players? Sniping No9s aren’t in the Borthwick script. Look at how van Poortvliet made a single run with possession during his two August appearances.
That lack of No9 movement made England predictable, but Mitchell wasn’t afraid of taking a gallop, the stats crediting him with seven carries. His 23 metres might not sound like a lot for a back, but his willingness to have a go meant he stretched the Argentina defence rather than allow it to get set if he just settled for repeated box kicks or passes to Ford.
His running became an invaluable third aspect to his game and he wasn’t shy of an offload either, throwing two to keep the ball moving and change the picture and tempo of the attack. As for his passing, there is a large cloak-and-dagger element in giving the perfect pass for an out-half to have enough time and space to slot a drop goal without having opposition players charge down on him.
For Mitchell to set Ford up three times in 10 minutes was the stuff of fairy tale and his all-court game has him set to see out this tournament as the first-choice No9 when it gets to next month’s knockout stages. That’s quite the fantastic story given how he wasn’t allowed to compete with van Poortvliet, Care and Youngs for squad selection in July.
From shambles to sublime
In the lead-up to this World Cup opener, we totted up that England were conceding a try on average every 24 minutes (30 tries in nine matches). If that average was repeated in Marseille, Argentina would score three tries – surely way too much of a leakage for the English to handle given the issues they have regarding scoring their own tries.
As it turned out, England didn’t manage a single try at the Velodrome – they never ever looked close to one. However, with Ford breezily firing over all his nine shots, three from the hand and six more from the tee, scoring tries became immaterial. Instead, what was most important was their defence scrambling a man down.
Admittedly, they have had a pile of practice recently as the Curry red was their fourth sending-off in six matches while they have also copped four yellows in that same timespan.
But there was something inspiring about their camaraderie on this occasion, a hell-bent refusal not to yield an inch, and it was rather cruel on defence coach Kevin Sinfield that a thoroughly deserved clean sheet was ruined by that last-minute consolation Argentina try.
Last time out, England fell off 27 tackles, a shortcoming that allowed Fiji to score three tries and sack Twickenham. This time around, they still missed 23 tackles but there was a belligerence that ensured mishaps weren’t going to come at a heavy cost and they got their spacings spot on when scrambling in support of each other.
Curiously, the players credited with the most missed England tackles – Jamie George, Maro Itoje and Ben Earl who each missed three – were the top team tacklers in their team, George with a chart-topping 15, Itoje on 14 and Earl on 13. It was clear they had each other’s back on this occasion and that emboldened attitude should please Sinfield immensely.
As we alluded to in the preview, Sinfield is an incredibly lovely man but there needed to be evidence that his system was the correct fit given what had unfolded defensively in the nine previous matches on his watch. Saturday night was the perfect 10 for the Test apprentice, his coaching finally memorably delivering.
Magical Marseille 16 years on
There seems to be something magical about backs-to-the-wall England World Cup games in Marseille. It was 16 years ago when they arrived battered and bruised into a quarter-final versus Australia, their progress stymied by a 0-36 pool stage pounding by the Springboks, and they produced a rollicking forwards-dominated effort to eliminate the Wallabies.
It was similar on Saturday night. England’s pack had been unimpressive, not only during August but throughout the Guinness Six Nations which was Borthwick’s first campaign in charge.
No sooner did they seem to address one issue did another mess up, deflating their attempts to take a genuinely positive step, but all facets came up trumps on this occasion to leave them poised for a quarter-final return to Marseille next month.
Even their discipline took strides forward once you overlook the issue of Curry getting sent off. It would have been easy to have gone on and come out the wrong side of Mathieu Raynal’s whistle but the way England got to work at the breakdown and set-piece was polished.
In the end, the penalty count was weighted heavily against Argentina on a 7-13 count. Add in the free-kick tally of 1-3 and the picture of England’s clear momentum emerges.
The key moment was undoubtedly the poach by skipper Courtney Lawes on the no-release Julian Montoya just metres out from the try line. It was a textbook bide your time, hands-on-the-ball intervention, please-reward-me-referee intervention.
A converted score then would have put Argentina in front, handed them massive momentum and there was every likelihood that England would have struggled with that scoreboard-infused Pumas adrenaline.
Instead, they exited their lines, went down the other end and that became the cue for the Ford show to start. From there, English belief flourished while Argentina became an indecisive mess that should haunt their impatient pack who lost concentration and stopped doing the all-important basics.
England were palpably better, but they certainly weren't sublime.
There is still no evidence of an attacking game worthy of the name but at least the defence appears to have been sorted out.
George ford's game management and ability to keep scoreboard pressure ticking over was impressive.
It's difficult to see how farrell could oust him from the 10 shirt currently.
At last an England performance with a bit of bite in defence and some intelligence in the game management dept. We still await some incisive attacking play but the steady accumulation of points meant that arguably this was not required under the circumstances (14 men). The speed off the line in defence was mightily impressive and will make England difficult to beat in later matches. Borthwick now has to show some bravery and omit Farrell from the starting team. I am not holding my breath and expect to see Farrell selected at 12.