England took twice as long to cross the Italian try-line as they did the Welsh line last Saturday. Last weekend the catalyst for that first try was Jamie Noon, his intelligent and aggressive inside line creating the opening for Mark Cueto. In Rome it was Noon’s centre partner Mike Tindall who stole the glory with a 30m burst through the Italian defence. It was typical Tindall. The England lineout supplied excellent possession and Tindall crashed through on a diagonal dart. Ball tucked under his arm, he bashed through a couple of tackles for England’s only try of the first half and England had the lead that almost all of the travelling support thought was long overdue. It was the best moment of the half for England’s supporters, but in the long term it may prove to be a debilitating blow for England ’s World Cup ambitions. Robinson is Tindall’s greatest fan and will see his powerful thrust as justification for his inclusion in the England midfield for the foreseeable future.
It was a well-taken try yet it confirmed all the weaknesses of his game that make him anything but the creative man required outside Charlie Hodgson. Three times in the first 10 minutes he received attacking ball. Each time he tucked the ball — as he did for the try — under his powerful shoulder. On at least one of these occasions there was more than a sniff of an overlap but his inability to distribute the ball allowed Italy to snuff out a potentially try-scoring situation.
As it is, Robinson and his fellow coaches will probably regard any criticism as something akin to heresy. Think back to the 47-13 win over Wales and the fact that Noon, one of England’s most influential attacking presences, made the break for the first try in the 13th minute. Here is a worrying statistic. In Rome the Newcastle man did not touch the ball in the entire first half. That’s right, the entire first half.
Now think back to Brian Ashton’s definition of the perfect back-line, as described in this paper last month. In Ashton’s attacking world the backs comprise three creative forces (the scrum-half, the fly-half and the inside-centre) and four penetrative finishers (the outside- centre, which is Noon’s position, the two wings and the full-back). If the outside-centre, who is the gateway between the sheer creativity of nine, 10 and 12 and the finishing prowess of 11, 14 and 15, does not even touch the ball you are not going to witness any fluidity from the backs. That leaves the forwards having to do all the work to win the game. In the first half, the Bath combination of Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock threatened to do just that.
Italy did not succumb and England were left struggling to put away a second-tier international outfit. Admittedly, on this evidence Italy are up there at the top of that league, but whatever England’s management may claim they are not among the biggest boys of Test rugby.
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For Italy to remain within one score of the world champions for nearly an hour, until Hodgson glided through, was hardly the stuff of dreams. It was most certainly not the stuff of world champions. Let us reconsider the first half and the impact of England’s back three. All three have an engaging desire for the ball and opportunities to shine but because Noon — via Tindall — received no ball there was hardly any opportunity for them to reveal their varied games.
Ben Cohen made one rapid break down the blind side but apart from that he was most effective chasing restarts. From set-piece possession, he stood in midfield between 10 and 12, or 12 and 13. The blindside wing, along with the full-back, is one of the two men that organised international defences cannot easily pick up because both can be screened by the front line of attackers. With Cohen and Cueto almost permanently standing as part of the one- dimensional offensive line, Italy were able to handle what was largely an unimaginative England offence. Cueto, like Cohen, hunted out the ball but with the portal that should have been Noon out of operation he never looked a threat.
The case of Tom Voyce is even more depressing. The replacement for Josh Lewsey has a lovely range of attacking angles. He certainly had plenty of ball early on, laying hands on it seven times in the first 15 minutes, but not once was he sprinting into the holes that a well- balanced midfield should have been creating, especially considering the quality of England’s lineout. A couple of years ago Jason Robinson had a field day here as England combined power and pace to rip Italy to shreds. Italy have improved but England’s wooden distribution for most of the game distorted the degree of improvement. Just to illustrate how easy this game can be, England finally combined for a smart Cueto try.
Ironically it was Tindall who delivered the inside pass to Cohen to make the initial breach. Cohen’s strength was finally utilised to proper effect and his speed carried him past the cover and through the last man. He made no mistake and slid Cueto into the corner. If last Saturday was one step forward this was a case of two steps back. It is not a pretty dance. England may be grinding towards this Six Nations championship, but unless the lessons of yesterday are learnt they are waltzing away from any realistic hopes of retaining the World Cup.
Stuart Barnes won 10 caps for England between 1984 and 1993