England need to use a 3-wood off the tee to get back in play - Brendan Venter
England’s fall from grace is an incredibly interesting case study. It’s difficult to believe that only a year ago they were on such a high, having claimed the Six Nations and won 24 of 25 Test matches.
England have since slumped to six successive defeats and are playing like a team that has completely lost their confidence. The players are making a plethora of basic errors – slipping tackles, kicking and passing poorly and over-running – which is symptomatic of a side that is very low on self-confidence.
Seeing if he can turn this team around will be the single biggest challenge of Eddie Jones’ coaching career to date. A run of defeats happen to all coaches because the margins within top-level sport are so slender. Eddie is aware of that because he is an experienced mentor. We all have knowledge but implementation is ultimately the trick. A professional coach can essentially create change within a team in two ways. The first by means of selection and the second through the plan. Eddie has been very good in resisting making wholesale changes up until now. As coaches, we know continuity is often the solution and, when you lose a match or two, you must avoid making wholesale changes. But, when you have lost six in a row, you have to make changes to try and arrest the downturn in results. The message emanating from the English set-up is: “We must take responsibility and try harder.” However, when in a rut, the irony is the harder you try, the more things seem to go wrong.
Jones needs to change a central part of his team and engender belief that Owen Farrell at fly-half can win games for England, not necessarily against South Africa on Saturday but, going forward. The criticism directed towards Farrell is unfair because he is an amazing player. In terms of the captaincy, Farrell is a natural leader but is struggling to cope with the added responsibility. Jones should let him lead, as he does with Saracens, without being skipper. George Ford at fly-half is not the answer. The England team doesn’t even know it yet but they don’t harbour the same belief in him they once did.
In terms of game plan, England need to simplify what they are doing. I believe they must become more conservative in order to regain their confidence. England have become too expansive in terms of style and they are making so many errors at the moment, as they are a team bereft of confidence.
Conversely, when you are playing well and riding the wave of momentum, it’s easy to chuck the ball around. Passes stick and players don’t over-run. To offer a golfing analogy, England need to use a 3-wood off the tee to get back in play or hit with a hybrid to stay on the fairway. The bottom line is that England aren’t in play at the minute, as they are making too many errors. However, Eddie is smart enough not to have turned on his players. I guarantee you he hasn’t been on their cases and definitely hasn’t screamed and shouted at them. He is too wily a coach for that out-dated approach.
With regard to the dressing room, it’s not that the players aren’t responding to Jones. All the noise coming out of the England camp this week tells me that it’s neither a culture problem nor are the players proving unresponsive. Eddie isn’t cross with the players and the players aren’t cross with him. The crux of the matter is that England need their luck to turn. Nine times out of ten, Elliot Daly would have gathered the grubber kick from which S’bu Nkosi scored and Brad Shields wouldn’t have had the ball dislodged from his grasp over the try-line. As a coach, there is no way you can legislate for those moments and, when you are in a losing spiral, everything that can go wrong usually does.
As far as the Springboks are concerned, Rassie Erasmus has the luxury of trying some new players and combinations in Cape Town but, if I was him, I wouldn’t mess with team selection too much because confidence is a precious commodity. When a team has been together for 18 months and isn’t brittle, it’s a valid option. However, it’s a risk chopping and changing after two Tests together. If England sneak the win at Newlands, the hosts would have let Jones and England off the hook. If South Africa lose the third Test, and with it the momentum, it brings England back into play. The Boks need to display their ruthless streak by killing England off and securing a 3-nil series whitewash.
Comments on RugbyPass
Toulouse has enough quality players so no headaches 😁 Choco is rarely a starting centre. Throughout this championship there have been far worse actions that were never called… too many rules, too many rule changes, too many inconsistencies, too many angry fans. I'm not surprised rugby does not attract new spectators, how could they understand 🤣
6 Go to commentsAh yes Andy with his “Goode” views. Oke might as well come out and say it, “I like seeing South African scrums depowered in order to give the rest of the world a chance”. Somehow he thinks World Rugby always knew about calling scrums from marks and it just so happened to coincide with Damien Willemse’s call that they decided to change the rules. Ah come on, if he can't see it then he needs prescription glasses. No ways, they are doing this for the betterment of Rugby. They want to clamp down on Rassie’s innovative skills than encouraging coaches to think outside of the box to try new things. What they can't count on is what Rassie will plan next. I almost get the impression that once Rassie retires World Rugby is going to be scrabbling around trying to find their identity. Currently set at ARP (Anti-Rassie Party). Although I don't really care in that regard because they always a RWC step behind.
7 Go to commentsWow ten years since they had a backing and more from the paying public I’d also mention that as a blues man and in walking distance to the garden I’d say that this team and Vern Cotter have got us dreaming beautiful thoughts and the merit is there from numbers 1 to 23 but we would like to think this is the new dna for the ABs and a pack weighing 940kg dry y not I hasten to add it seems patty has to stay fit cause he is the driver the main driver and they follow plus the pipe man H Plummer is conducting his own orchestra ….. Beethoven anybody
1 Go to commentsJuicy stuff well covered I’d go as far as to say that the referee was a key component in keeping it a tasty spectacle
1 Go to commentsCotter has added that steel that has been missing. Let's see if it will carry until the Finals… Come on the Blues ….
2 Go to commentsAndy Goode just loves to be controversial. Its boring. Let’s all stop reading.
7 Go to commentsYou have got to consider that if the situation was flipped and the French were held to a salary cap with no English equivalent, the English would laugh in their faces and tell them to get over it. As for Leinster (as a fan), the central contract system is a dream but is guilty of cutting out the other 3 provinces. At the end of the day, it comes across outside of the English border that the Premiership is drowning and trying to take everyone else with it rather than adapt. The English lose, the English want new rules. We've seen this repeat (and once it even led to the current Champions Cup) You make many good and informed points, but if the flip was on the other flop, it wouldn't be Rugby’s problem I suspect - it would be a French one.
15 Go to commentsSeems to have been a bright start but it tailed off. To win the big matches you have to get used to putting your foot on the throttle and your opponent’s necks in an 80 minutes performance which is what the All Blacks were renowned for. An example in the Women’s game is England v Ireland in the 6N match played at Twickenham in April. Watch on YouTube.
1 Go to commentsBobby has been a first grade bonehead since high school. Like a true Cape Tonian, his own reflection is more important than anything else.
1 Go to commentsNo comment on the textbook red card for Ramm that was just ignored? Amazing that
4 Go to commentsThese rule changes have been implemented with good intentions, but much like every other rule change focus on isolated symptoms instead of the root cause. If you cannot croc roll, and cannot risk any head contact with a front on clear out, it is not clear how you are supposed to lawfully clear someone out who is attempting a jackal. This will backfire massively and lead to substantially more kicking. Teams will simply not want to take the ball into contact. Or it will lead to even more dangerous methods to clear players out who are over the ball. I much prefer having the set piece on a 30 second shot clock over no scrum on a short arm infringement. Resets are not a problem in themselves, but 90 second water and tactics breaks before every scrum are a big problem. Trainers constantly coming on to the field to help players pull their socks up and delaying the game are a problem. DuPont law was a blight on the game and should have been changed the day after it was first implemented.
79 Go to commentsAh yes, the opinion of Andy Goode… Andy Goode, the man who knows what some of the Irish players said to Eben Etzebeth after the QF, better than what Eben himself knows. And, judging by this piece, the Grandmaster of clichés.
7 Go to commentsI think this is a fair view. As a South African I am concerned about the depowering of the scrum but let’s be honest, until the SA vs FRA quarter many people didn’t even know you could take a scrum from a free kick. As you say it’s going to come down to interpretation… until then we don’t really know how this is going to impact the game. That would lead to my own objection. Do the unknowns of changing a law outweigh the cons of said law. With such an obscure law that most people had never heard of, one that had never really had an impact on the game in the first place is it worth changing to invite so much uncertainty. Better the devil you know then the devil you don’t as it were…
7 Go to comments162 comments so far and counting. i didn't realize that rugby fans are on the way to join the football brothers. what is the point to share personal opinion only to get all this shi*? it seems IRB bosses are doing the great job by killing the spirit of the game both on and outside the pitch. too sad, indeed. btw, was there anything on eben’s point of view from the boys in green, who he mentioned?
164 Go to commentsJob done guys. Great win in a game where things can quickly go wrong.
1 Go to commentsAlex Sanderson fantastic coach and person .So pleased he has signed another contract great days ahead for Sale under his leadership.
1 Go to commentsAndy Goode cant kick to 12
164 Go to commentsDoxed himself. Great work Johnny. You are well suited to the Saders
1 Go to comments_Best game players _
2 Go to commentsWho's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to comments