There is a dogged honesty about the England team that contested the Six Nations. This is not the highest praise that can be lavished on a sporting team, but it’s a damn sight better than the dogged dishonesty that characterised England’s campaign at the last World Cup.
At the World Cup it was hard to know whether to condemn England for their technical, tactical or moral shortcomings. At least this lot are full of stirring sporting virtues: playing all together, never a thought of shirking, every one sharing a keen a sense of duty. All the most straightforward, clodhopping, essential decencies that you want in team sport.
Worthy, that’s what they are. All trying so frightfully hard. It’s been cheering to watch them throughout this tournament. They’ve gone back to basics - basics is what they’ve given us, and it would be rotten to criticise too much. You just have to do is remind yourself of the mess things were in just a few months back and you can see the point of these boys.
If England can build on all this jolly decent stuff they’ve given us, this campaign will look like an essential interim stage: a vital period of rebuilding after the sporting ineptitude and moral turbulence that came immediately before.
All the same, there is a sense that this team can be – what’s the mot juste? Dull. That’s it. Not that I’m expecting Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but dull means predictable and if you know what the opposition is doing you have a much better chance of stopping them. If you want to do predictable, you need to do authority as well. Ask an All Black.
Advertisement
England at this stage have neither devil nor authority. Nor can you get these things for the asking. It took Sir Clive Woodward years to establish that massive sense of self-belief in his 2003 World Cup winners.
Today’s match against Ireland was full of predictable lines, baffling kicking, and all that running-straight-into-contact stuff that is England’s default mode. This was seasoned with all the usual wet-ball errors; unlike Formula One, rugby isn’t always better in the rain. England still have the vice of conceding a penalty as soon as they’ve scored from one. There was scope, then, for some sense of frustration.
But let’s not knock doggedness or honesty, whether as moral or as sporting qualities. England established a massive dominance at the scrum and used it to force penalties and then a penalty try. It was appropriate that the selfless virtues of the scrum resulted in a try with no name. That, and a great deal of rat-trap tackling was enough to secure England’s fourth win of the year. The evening ended in outright celebration as the Irish scrum got worse and Ben Youngs sneaked over for a try.
England are leaving this tournament a sight better than they entered it. They have moved from despair to hope: and that is the longest journey in the world. It’s been fascinating and at times inspiring to tell the tale... one that ends with a cliff-hanger.