It is a sign of both the richness of England’s attacking display in Lyon, and the poverty of their performances in recent years, that a three-win championship is being hailed as a major sign of progress.
Not so long ago, Stuart Lancaster’s continued habit of winning four games was branded “unacceptable” by Ian Ritchie, then chief executive of the Rugby Football Union. Even as they racked up World Cup wins in 2020 and last year, they were an extremely difficult team to like.
Yet there was no denying the sense of romance that flared up again on Saturday evening around the traveling support that piled into taxis and trams from the out-of-town Groupama Stadium on Saturday evening. English rugby’s optimism, which has been dry for so many years, has been revived after the 23-22 defeat of champions Ireland was followed by a harrowing 33-31 defeat by France. “If I were an England supporter right now I would be really excited about what I see,” said scrum-half Danny Care. “Everyone better watch out, because if this team is on fire, they’re going to be very hard to stop.”
The turning point of the English Championship came at Murrayfield, where the team were on fire but lost due to repeated self-immolations, making 22 turnovers and 25 handling errors. The 30-21 defeat raised many external questions about Steve Borthwick’s project, but there were also internal doubts. As Telegraph Sport reported, the new defensive system implemented by Felix Jones was prioritized at the expense of attack under Richard Wigglesworth, to the extent that in one session one defender only touched the ball once in one session.
A significant realignment of training priorities followed, with fly-half George Ford admitting that the defeat acted as a line in the sand in terms of what would become England’s identity. “We had to make a choice,” Ford said. “It was right after that game when we had to have some honest conversations about things and decide which team we wanted to be.
“You never want to go through situations like that, but if you do, you have to learn and come out the other side. After that match we had to make a choice. We definitely went to one end of the spectrum and that’s been the whole conversation since then [Scotland] game; that we had to go the other way.”
There was no greater demonstration of the transformation in England’s attacking intent and execution than in the build-up to Tommy Freeman’s try, which looked to have secured their first victory in France in eight years before Thomas Ramos’ long-range penalty. The ball was moved via a flip pass from Alex Mitchell to Ford and from Marcus Smith to Freeman, looping around the corner, straight into the teeth of the French defense in less than two seconds.
Rewind, three weeks ago, in Edinburgh and England passed the ball well behind the winning line and still made mistakes, most notably when Ford, one of the best passers in the English game, fired a ball at the head of George Furbank, who was in control of the ball. same line as Henry Slade. “I just wanted to be closer to the line, I wanted to be more of a threat and cajole, and then take the other guys with me,” Ford said. “That’s what the 2010s have been working hard on. We were too far off the line against Scotland.
“If you look back, sometimes when you are playing in first-class Test matches and have the responsibility of making decisions, managing the game and putting the team in the right areas, you can fall into a trap. I’ve probably gone too far on the other end of the spectrum. Well, probably not – definitely. I thought about it and realized I had to go the other way.”
This time last year, England were in the middle of a six-hour drought without a try being scored. In this championship, 11 of their 13 tries were scored by backs. No team reached the opposition 22 more times than England (48). They topped the charts in tackle evasion (24 percent) and gain-line success (52 percent) and were second in line breaks (28) behind Ireland. Clearly there is a lot to work on. In all five of their matches they trailed at halftime. Their efficiency in the red zone is the latter. This also applies to their tackle percentage, as Jones’ defensive system connects, and they are particularly vulnerable to turnovers, as both Scotland and France have shown. “I absolutely promise you we’ll be better with that next time,” Borthwick said.
But on both sides of the ball, England have become a team you would want to watch, albeit perhaps not at Twickenham prices. There is a feeling of unpredictability and verve. In short, they’ve become fun, a word never easily associated with Borthwick, after a recalibration of their priorities. As Ford says, offense can sometimes be the best form of defense.
“Everyone says, ‘We’re going to go after them on defense,’ but we can also go after them 100 percent on offense,” Ford said. “When you have an incredible offense and you give them problems and score points, it makes your defense a lot better too. It has been a great learning experience for us.
“I think the penny has dropped in terms of what kind of team we want to be. And how dangerous we can be. We all play rugby because you want to have a crack, you want to fire shots, you want to score points, you want to score tries. With this attacking mentality, going to teams, breaking the line and scoring tries. Believe me, it’s also much more fun to play in, let alone for the fans watching. We are going to make sure this is top of our priorities going forward.”
Titles remain the currency by which teams are truly judged, but after so many joyless years, at least England supporters have a team to love again.