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The message within the England camp should be loud and clear this weekend: we are not conceding any tries against Japan. As much as Eddie Jones will be revelling in coming back to Twickenham, in trying to exploit whatever insecurities England have on the back of five straight defeats, this is not a Japan side that will harbour genuine hopes of an upset. The target for England, then, after an autumn of defensive frailties, should be to tighten up. To make sure that even if the result is not in doubt, they defend their line with all they’ve got.
It can be difficult when the drop-off is so pronounced having faced the back-to-back world champions in South Africa. Japan are historically a side who like to move the ball and I don’t expect that to change but England faced the same team in Tokyo over the summer in their first match of that tour and put 50 points on them despite stifling humidity. More than targeting a similar number of points, or a number of tries, I would challenge England to keep Japan tryless.
In every area of the game they should look to stamp their authority so you break it down. Steve Borthwick has said he wants England to be a team who excite with ball in hand so I also want to see that on Sunday, not just for the first quarter but for the last 20 minutes as well. I want to see England dominant aerially, on the floor and let’s go after their set piece. But above all else, the defence is the bedrock of everything. Don’t give them a sniff, be 100% connected, be aggressive and win those exchanges. Twelve tries conceded across three matches so far is cause for concern but England can look towards the Six Nations more positively with a better defensive showing on Sunday.
The concern over the defence comes from seeing good defensive players doing things you just wouldn’t normally expect them to. Ben Earl’s missed tackle on Damian de Allende is a good example – Henry Slade was at fault to a degree too – and that came as a surprise. I’m seeing individual errors and I’m seeing systematic errors as well. A blitz defence often lends itself to two-man tackles but we’re just not seeing very many. If you’re flying off the line and shepherding your opponents from outside to in, you should be seeing two-man collisions but it just isn’t happening. Admittedly South Africa are a side full of physicality but they made three times as many dominant hits as England. It is because of their defensive structure that allows them to be more connected. To put it another way, two-man tackles are much harder when there is a disconnect.
In possession – and I expect them to have plenty against Japan – I want to see England come alive within their structures. They have scored some excellent tries this autumn, the kind of thing we were crying out for not long ago, but so much of it has come from unstructured play. Marcus Smith has dazzled when the game becomes unstructured but how many times have England scored when going through the phases, going through their structures? Don’t get me wrong, you should never go through phases for the sake of it and if it only takes a couple to get over the tryline then brilliant. But I want to see England using their structure, their shape and their launch. I’ve seen a number of launch plays, whether it be from a lineout or from a scrum, that have broken down. I want to see better connectivity in that regard.
I’ve reflected on the past three matches a lot this week. Despite the disappointment, if you’re a neutral the best tickets of this Autumn Nations Series have been at Twickenham. There was last-minute drama against the All Blacks, last-minute drama against Australia and what was ultimately a pretty tight contest against the world champions. All three matches have been entertaining, we’ve had moments of sublime genius from Smith, who has beaten 17 defenders, we’ve had Len Ikitau’s phenomenal piece of skill to win the game for the Wallabies.
England have been left with a series of what-ifs – had George Ford’s penalty not struck a post, had he found the target with his drop goal, and yes, it is easy to look at their performances through a positive lens. But results have been disappointing and there is no getting away from that. Coming into the autumn I believed that three wins would have been a decent return.
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On one hand you could argue they haven’t been too far off that, as Borthwick and his players have reminded us, but at the sharp end of sport it comes down to results and they have just not been good enough. I don’t think there is a single supporter or player who is accepting that the results have been good enough regardless of some of the moments we’ve had and they will know that needs to change come the Six Nations.
