Probably without ever intending it, the most damning analysis of England’s performance at Twickenham on Saturday came not from any analyst or expert or writer with finely poisoned quill, it came from Rocky Elsom, the Australia captain.
When asked to what extent he and his team-mates had to battle to keep out England, how much hard work and backs-against-the-wall stuff was required to defend their tryline, to stop England from going for the jugular, Elsom said that his team had to work very hard in defence, but he added: “I didn’t feel we were really stretched.”
England may have been going for the jugular, but, as Elsom attested, the home team did not clap eyes on it all day. England are again building, waiting, preparing for greater things, yet appear to remain stuck in a perpetual state of waiting, building and preparation.
There is a Groundhog Day feeling to the start of these autumn series at Twickenham. England start averagely, they perform honestly, valiantly but undazzlingly and then deliver the reminder that that was just the start. That was pretty much the form on Saturday. And it has been pretty much the history of the England team, yes, ever since 2003.
If you plotted a progress curve from that date, it would be flat. There appeared to be an upward turn towards the end of last season’s RBS Six Nations Championship but that seems a blip rather than a foundation from which further improvement may be made. It is all very well to draw a line in the sand and say, “from here we go forward”, but England, for once, need to build momentum and keep it.
Advertisement
Martin Johnson, the team manager, said: “That is the first game this side has played together and we will be better for it for next week.” And quite right, they should improve for Argentina on Saturday.
Yet there seemed less patience in the approach to building and rebuilding from Robbie Deans, the Wallabies coach. “If you look at our experience across the board, our cap count is not that high, either,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter. People don’t really care how many caps you have or how old you are, they expect you to perform.”
Given a choice of the two, who would not prefer the Australian way? On Saturday they threw in a new centre partnership and they delivered on Day 1. And Will Genia, the scrum half, is so fresh to this game that he was buzzing afterwards, not about having beaten England but because he had met Jonny Wilkinson. “I’ll go home and tell my family, ‘I played against Jonny Wilkinson and shook his hand,’ ” he said.
It would, though, be preposterous not to recognise the unusual circumstances here. England’s injured army is astonishing in number. Australia may have established now that Genia and those centres, Digby Ioane and Quade Cooper, are international class, but England likewise made three significant gains last season and of those, Delon Armitage and Riki Flutey are injured, and only Tom Croft remains.
Three finds in one season is a decent haul. And remember that a year ago when Flutey made his debut, he did not exactly look the part. Shane Geraghty hardly looked the part on Saturday but if, by the end of the Six Nations, he and two other new faces have proved their worth at this level, then the pool grows ever deeper.
Advertisement
However, the issue with England and the team’s development is not so much who they play but how. With the bountiful resources at England’s command, the ability to survive the present injury crisis and find enough quality to make the necessary replacements should not be a blessed relief but a fact of life.It should be taken for granted.
In the 67th minute on Saturday, Matt Banahan took up the ball for England over the halfway line and there followed more than a minute of possession for the home side that went left, right, left, right, left, from one side of the pitch to the other until the ball was knocked on by Ayoola Erinle.
The ground that England made in that time was minimal. They got nearly as far as the Wallabies’ 22 and by the time Erinle had dropped it, they were pretty much back where they started. The reason that, as Elsom said, Australia were not exactly stretched was because England were playing such a straightforward game.
England can amass all the talent they like, three new good ’uns a year, but until they find a way of asking questions of opposition defences, they will not stretch them, they will remain where they are: in a perpetual state of building, perpetually preparing to achieve, but never actually getting it completed.