More Thoughts of Chairman Moore by Brian Moore

Author:Brian Moore [Moore, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857202451
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

48

England need not fear any team in one-off fixture

March 2011

Martin Johnson is a cautious man. This does not mean he is incapable of bold decisions; he does not lack courage. Rather, it means any choice labelled thus will be a calculated risk, not a flight of fancy. Throughout his tenure as England manager he has ignored the siren voices that insisted he jettison the old and install a raft of young players en bloc. Instead, his has been a steady programme of introduction and, at last, he has done something that was desperately needed, was blindingly obvious, but was not achieved by his two immediate predecessors – he has brought stability to selection.

As his team prepare for a Grand Slam finale in Dublin, the opinions on the quality have again polarised. This tendency to extremity is a relatively modern phenomenon, encouraged by the plethora of media sources that jostle for attention and try to attract it by hyperbole.

There may be a few supporters who acclaim this England team as world-beaters, but not many and none with any rugby nous. There are many who are keen to run down Johnson’s men, describing them as merely average or alternatively attempting to diminish their results by claiming that this Six Nations Championship has been of poor quality.

Let us dispose of the quality argument first. You have to go back to the state of the teams as they entered the tournament. Scotland had a successful autumn campaign; France, on paper, had a wealth of talent; Ireland’s players had performed well in the Heineken Cup; Italy had improved, save for the lack of a settled half-back pairing; only Wales had struggled coming into the first round.

All concerned knew this would be the last Six Nations before the World Cup. As such, whatever is now claimed, the six national team managers/coaches must have been planning to select pretty much their World Cup starting 22s. They would also expect their teams to perform well, given that they are nearing the apex of long-term performance programmes.

If England’s four opponents thus far have all been poor then those responsible for their preparation should be fired. The fact is that much of the play has been typical of this competition, attritional and entirely result-driven, with quality suborned to the result. It is always thus.

To assess England’s progress you have to start from what was known before the first kick-off, not from what is now apparent. Prior to the Wales game they lost their captain, Lewis Moody, two second rows, Courtney Lawes and Dave Attwood, and back-row forward Tom Croft. There were questions about whether the inexperienced replacements would cope with the pressure of playing at the Millennium Stadium. They coped and did not look like losing once they grabbed a ten-point lead in the first quarter.

England’s 59–13 thrashing of Italy, though assisted by the Italians’ ill-advised decision to play expansively from bad ball, nevertheless was a very good performance. Critics who dismissed Italy as a substandard side have to explain their other results – narrow losses to Ireland and Wales and a well-deserved win against France.

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