Steve Borthwick is right. England’s players are not fit enough for international rugby, physically or mentally.
Speaking after South Africa had extended England’s losing streak to five on the trot, Borthwick told journalists: “At the start of this series, you looked at the condition of the players and it wasn’t quite where it needed to be for Test-match rugby, for teams stepping straight into Test-match rugby.”
The England head coach said that against New Zealand, Australia and the Springboks, his boys had come up against “very good teams that have come off the back of the Rugby Championship, so they are Test-match hardened”.
At the same time as Borthwick was talking to reporters in the bowels of Twickenham, France and the All Blacks were kicking off in Paris in a match that turned out to be a thriller.
France won 30-29 after overturning a 17-10 half-time deficit, in the process overturning Borthwick’s “Test-match hardened” theory. Given that French coach Fabien Galthie took a second-string squad to Argentina for their summer tour, this was the first outing for the regulars since the Six Nations. So how were France able to play with a physicality and an intensity that has been beyond England this month?
Fitness is indeed the answer: not so much of the players, but the league in which they play. Let’s be blunt: the Gallagher Premiership is a lightweight competition, and it is not preparing its players for Test-match rugby.
I wrote recently of the physicality of the Top 14, and the injuries that accrue over the season. The upside is an intensity that replicates the rigours of Test-match rugby. A few rounds of the Top 14 and a player is battle-hardened for the international fray.
The Premiership is lightweight… in physicality, atmosphere and intensity. It is no longer capable of providing the bridge between club rugby and Test rugby
In an interview last season, Racing 92’s English winger Henry Arundell compared and contrasted the Premiership and the Top 14: “Every weekend, you play against the world’s greatest players in the Top 14,” he said. “Wherever you go, the stadiums are full, the atmosphere is crazy… I’ve played a few international matches and in my opinion, the Top 14 is the championship that comes closest to that level.”
Kyle Sinckler said something similar after a few matches at Toulon this season, and Zach Mercer – who played the best rugby of his career during his two seasons with Montpellier – spoke of the physical challenge as “always huge in the Top 14”.
Even the ProD2 can match the Premiership for physicality, according to Courtney Lawes, who swapped Northampton for Brive in the summer. “From a physical point of view there’s not a lot of difference between the two championships,” he said recently.
The Premiership is lightweight by contrast, in physicality, atmosphere and intensity. It is no longer capable of providing the bridge between club rugby and Test-match rugby.
In his column for the Mail on Sunday, Clive Woodward was characteristically forthright in dissecting England’s dismal autumn. “Once again, England didn’t make the right calls under pressure,” wrote Woodward. “Once again, England were on the wrong side of the fine margins. It’s becoming a recurring theme. That’s five games in a row now… it was the team’s decision-making on the field that let the supporters down.”
Blame the Premiership. It has become a soft competition, turning out soft players who are incapable of withstanding the mental and physical pressure of international rugby.
Competitiveness kills complacency… Matches are tighter in the Top 14, and points harder to come by, because teams are more competitive.
The rot set in nearly four years ago when the RFU scrapped relegation and promotion, ring-fencing the Premiership and in the process rendering many matches meaningless. There are hardly any matches in the Top 14 when there isn’t something at stake; even in the Spring, teams are battling hard to finish in the top six and qualify for the play-offs, or fighting to avoid being in the bottom two. Competitiveness kills complacency.
Last season, Bath finished second in the Premiership, scoring 511 points and conceding 413; Stade Français finished second in the Top 14 and their tally was 539 for and 511 against. The difference was that Stade Français played eight games more in the regular season. Bristol Bears, who finished fifth, did so by scoring 591 points. La Rochelle accumulated 595 points in finishing fifth in the Top 14. In other words, matches are tighter in the Top 14, and points harder to come by, because teams are more competitive.
Between them last season, Newcastle and Gloucester won five of their 36 matches. In effect, there were really only eight clubs competing in the Premiership. Of the 10 clubs in the English top-flight, seven were recently declared balance-sheet insolvent.
It is a demoralised competition. No wonder there are now 47 Englishmen playing in either the Top 14 or the ProD2. More will surely follow given the financial uncertainty engulfing the Premiership.
France have now beaten New Zealand in their last three Tests, but Saturday night’s victory was the most satisfying for Fabien Galthié. “The team stuck together and the spirit they showed in difficult moments, in times of weakness, particularly in the first half, was very strong,” he reflected.
New Zealand dominated France in the first 40, but the French absorbed the pressure, making 208 tackles in the game overall. Their discipline was exemplary, as was their precision when they had possession. The All Blacks had the ball for 23 minutes, 10 minutes more than France. The visitors’ attacking efficiency was 1.3 points per minute of possession; for France it was 2.3.
“What was also good was what happened at half-time, and the way we managed to sort out the problems with our attacking play and put things right with the way we played,” explained Galthié.
Sir Clive better brace himself for February’s Six Nations clash at Twickenham. On the evidence of Saturday, there’ll be more kids on the pitch as the men of France crush the boys of England.
France were everything on Saturday that England’s weren’t. A team that solved problems and handled pressure. It used to be the French with a reputation for being flaky in the final quarter; now it’s England.
Do the players care? Woodward raised his eyebrow in his column at the behaviour of some England players following Saturday’s defeat by South Africa. “I hate the fact that minutes after the full-time whistle and following yet another loss, the players are smiling, waving and playing with their children on the field,” he wrote.
Sir Clive better brace himself for February’s Six Nations clash at Twickenham. On the evidence of Saturday, there’ll be more kids on the pitch as the men of France crush the boys of England.
Where this argument falls down, is that many of the Boks ply their trade in Japan, hardly comparable to the English Prem in intensity let alone the Top 14. Yet, the Bok players return to the international fold, hardened and as we saw, ready to play. Its a mindset as much as a lighter weight competition.
the URC isn't exactly heavyweight either. Sure, there are some good teams in that comp, but there's also Zebre and Dragons.
Clive Woodward should shut up