At Murrayfield, I expected Scotland to be a much sterner test of England than many were predicting, despite their poor form coming into the game, but I certainly wasn’t expecting that.
There were shades of Cardiff in 2013 and Dublin in 2017 as England were completely outplayed at the breakdown. Facing two natural opensides, and with a lock at six, a six at seven and a number eight who has only played about 20 minutes of rugby since returning from injury, England were disrupted and bullied. England won four turnovers to Scotland’s 10, while conceding 13 penalties to seven. England did look better in the second half, but by then it was too little, too late.
Here’s how the player’s rated.
1 Mako Vunipola
Not Vunipola’s best game, but solid and better than most of the pack – always a willing ball carrier, making a lot of ground in the tight, and his engine for a prop is excellent. 6.5
2 Dylan Hartley
With this match, Hartley earned his 92 cap and became the second most capped (male) England player of all time – behind only Jason Leonard. Hartley had more of an impact at the ruck than some of his teammates and threw well in the lineout again. However, given he is continually praised for his leadership by his coach and teammates, I do question why, with England backs to the wall and in need of some inspiration, he was substituted so early (56 minutes). 5.5
3 Dan Cole
Part of a pack that never achieved the scrum dominance I hoped for. Only five tackles, looked subdued and offered little in open play – while his attacking stats read 0 in every column. Disappointing, as a senior player with 80 test caps, you would have hoped would raise his game when things got tough. 4.5
4 Joe Launchbury
England’s highest tackler with 14, although gave away two penalties – one of which was harsh but chalked off Care’s intercept try. Industrious and one of the better players at clearing out the contact area. 6
5 Maro Itoje
Another quiet game from Itoje, he is not dominating opponents the way he was 12 months ago – maybe the sheer amount of rugby he has played is catching up with the World Player of the Year nominee. Made a lot of tackles and stole a lineout. England’s maul (both attack and defence) was particularly poor this match (for want of a better place, that comment sits here). 5.5
6 Courtney Lawes
As mentioned, England’s defeat was built around a failure at the contact area, due in part to an unbalanced backrow without enough pace or presence at the breakdown. Lawes is an excellent second row, but playing on the blindside, this week he came up short. Otherwise, he made a couple of trademark big hits – flattening Finn Russell and nearly setting up a try, had he not been judged to have knocked on in the process, but was also England’s worst offender with three penalties. 5
7 Chris Robshaw
Like Lawes, a good player being played out of position and must share criticism for England’s pasting at the breakdown. However, he was effective in the rest of his game – tackling aggressively, racking up the most number of carries (unsurprising given he played nearly half the match at number eight) and winning a penalty turnover. Please return him to the blindside. 6
8 Nathan Hughes
Started brightly and was by far England’s best carrier, beating three defenders for 54 metres – however, a lack of match fitness diminished his impact as the game went on and was subbed first on 54 minutes. Looked increasingly sluggish around the park and was poor defensively; slow to respond and cover the gap in the defensive line for the second Huw Jones try. 5.5
9 Danny Care
Good vision to put Farrell in for his try and looked lively as always, but struggled with the length on his kicking game and delivery lacked its normal snappiness – although he was getting very little clean quick ball and often had to go digging for it. Seems to be threatening less around the fringes. His intercept a case of what could have been. 6.5
10 George Ford
Like Care, Ford had to try and force things from slow ball. However, kicking from hand and his passing was poor by his standard and very much second best to his opposite number, Finn Russell. With the game slipping away, it was Ford Eddie Jones opted to replace. 5.5
11 Jonny May
Had a few threatening runs, but Scotland shacked him well. Worked hard to come off his wing into midfield, made a couple of important tackles but also rather daftly took a pass standing in touch. 6
12 Owen Farrell
England’s best player, scoring all their points and picking another lovely line for their only try. Looked most likely to wrestle England back into the game. Despite that, he was not immune from the malaise of his team mates, offside for a kick and not as robust defensively as normal. Moved to 10 for the last 15 minutes. 7
13 Jonathan Joseph
What a difference a year makes – last tournament it was Joseph inflicting the trauma on Scotland with his hat-trick at Twickenham. Huw Jones must have been plotting his revenge since… Joseph was very quiet; according to the stats, he was got through a high number of carries (10) but didn’t manage to spark anything useful. And while he is often praised for his defensive work, he was soft there as well, missing two. His place it at risk for the next game. 5
14 Anthony Watson
A couple of half-breaks in attack but, alongside Joseph, made a hash of Russell’s deft kick through for Jones’ first try, while also allowing the centre to bully his way through a tackle to the try line. Underwhelming performance for a Lions winger. 5
15 Mike Brown
After the superb, critic-silencing performance of the last match, this was very disappointing from Mr Angry. Solid under the high ball, but elsewhere not his usual reliable self: gave away a daft penalty, threw a shocker of a pass to Watson and beaten in defence on two occasions. 5
Replacements
The hero of the Wales match, Sam Underhill, seemed to improve England’s presence at the breakdown but then ruined it with a mindless no-arms tackle and the resulting yellow card hampered England’s chances of a comeback. Given England’s contact area issues, I would still expect him to come into the side against France. The rest of the bench continued in much the same vein as the players they replaced. Jack Nowell was comparatively impressive – interestingly, and slightly depressingly, according to IBM, he ended up England’s ‘key influencer. He made four line breaks and beat four defenders, despite only being on the pitch for 25 minutes. Another candidate for a start against France. 5
How do you think they did?
By Henry Ker
I can’t recall 100% that scoring matrix that was talked about a while back but bar Farrell and Robshaw I would struggle to give anyone above 5. I think 5 was classed as below par and 4 as poor.
I have said in another post that (in my view) whilst the Scottish performance was very good, I don’t think it was anything out of the ordinary at this level of rugby & they just came with more intensity and were smarter at the breakdown. So the fact it was player intensity and rugby nous that England couldn’t match/deal with, I would rate the vast majority of the team having a below par performance.
Thoughts?
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I went up and down on the scores a lot over the course of writing this (started with a lot of 4s!). My reasoning behind very average scores is I think generally the Scotland performance was very good, despite it feeling like such a comprehensive thrashing, it was 25-13 (so not as bad as Cardiff in 2013 for example), and a lot of the problem was players out of position, being asked to do a job that isn’t their natural fit and suffering as a result. The players fault? Or the selection? A bad and deflating loss, but maybe not the train wreck it felt like immediately after the final whistle.
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I don’t think bad selection can be blamed. Bar Hughes this was same pack that more than held their own at the breakdown against Wales and delivered far quicker ball….a Welsh pack that contained Scotlands pack easily. Now whether it was tiredness, complacency, or just being overwhelmed by the whole event who knows….but for me, on the day and on the pitch you need to land a big part of this with the players
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I thought Robshaw was easily our best player. Launchbury stood up pretty well as did Lawes despite playing out of position (surely that experiment will be shelved from now on) . The rest were frankly underwhelming.
The front row were particularly poor. I saw a stat showing Cole didnt touch the ball in the game. For a prop who is hardly dominating the scrum this is pitiful and unacceptable. Mako isnt playing that well, and Hartley should be given a rest. You cannot have your captain being taken off after 50 odd minutes every game. Itoje has lost his edge and Hughes was plainly short of fitness.
The backs weren’t any better. Watson had one of his worst games, May run into cul de sacs, JJ was unusually poor in defence and Brown did little to suggest his decline has been halted.
From the bench Nowell and Williams showed up well and should start next time out.
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Bring in Nowell and Daly for the next game. Give Cole and Hartley a rest. Start with Underhill, and have another pacy back rower on the bench.
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Agree with Steve H here, particularly re Robshaw, who must be due for a random drug test, his stamina is just incredible.
I am a huge fan of Underhill and I think he should be excused for his “over-exuberance” in that tackle. Overall he made an incredible impact when he came on. Easily England’s best option for openside. Robshaw’s best position is clearly blindside, and with Underhill available there’s no reason to play Robshaw at 7.
England’s back row was humiliated by Scotland, but I really think this is easily corrected, especially if Simmonds is fit for France. Here’s a back row selection that has blokes playing in their best positions (in my opinion) and combines youth and experience:
6. Robshaw
7. Underhill
8. Simmonds
And I would honestly have Hask on the bench to cover all three. He has the experience to come on and help close a game out, and has a point to prove.
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I said before the match that they shoudl have started with Nowell and Underhill. I stand by that. As Eddie himself said, Robshaw should only be considered as a 6. He is neither a 7 nor an 8. And why you start with 3 second rows and still have another one on the bench I will never understand.
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Not much to argue with here.
I think this point may have been raised before and I this suggestion isn’t a long term solution but with the injuries to Big Billy, Nathan Hughes (yes I know he’s back) and Sam Simmonds my thought would’ve been to pick a player for the interim that fits the Billy/Hughes model in other words Thomas Waldrom.
Yes I know the years are unwinding on Thomas the Tank Engine but he is still an effective ball carrier at Number 8 for Exeter and still destructive from 5 yards out, I personally wouldn’t of minded him coming on when Hughes ran out of gas, as I say not a long term solution (like Wigglesworth) but someone who could plug a gap in an effective England tactic rather than try and make do with Robshaw or even Haskell.
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I’m another who actually thought Robshaw had a decent game in an underwhelming team performance. Having said that, all of the backs suffered through having slow ball, while Scotland had quick ball to work with making their attack harder to defend, so the backrow has to take the hit for that.
I wonder if we ought to give the coaches a mark. It would undoubtedly be EJ’s lowest of his tenure. I would suggest a 3 possibly. Can’t understand how he/England managed to completely nullify the Scottish breakdown work at Twickenham 12 months ago with total power rucking and then so completely fail at Murrayfield with total powderpuff rucking.
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At Twickers last year Raynaul literally told Barclay that Scotland weren’t allowed to compete at the breakdown.
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Again too harsh on Cole, you criticise him on things that aren’t his roles, for example ball-carrying
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Well for his role, he didn’t dominate his opposite number at the scrum, only made 5 tackles, while – for general forward play – England were beaten consistently at the breakdown and in the maul. He didn’t even touch the ball. I am struggling to see what he brought to the side to earn a higher score?
As a Leicester fan I have been a huge advocate of Dan Cole for years, and while he has never been the most formidable carrier I remember when we used to comment that having Cole was like having another back row player on the pitch due to his impact. As an international prop in the supposed second best side in the world, I don’t think it is unreasonable to say he needs to do more than be ‘solid’ in the scrum.
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Absolutely fair to criticise Cole for not ball-carrying when he’s doing bugger all else.
Equalled or beaten at scrum time by Scotlands 4th (or 5th?) choice loose head. Failed to pull his weight in the ruck, maul or the tackle. And despite all this he didn’t even touch the ball once!
Why is he there? Can anyone imagine NZ’s props not touching the ball once? they seem to manage carrying the ball, whilst also doing well in the scrum, ruck, maul and tackle.
This is just making excuses for Cole now. When was the last time he dominated another front row at international level?
He’s been a great servant for England but it’s time to start fading him out. Start him by all means as we don’t have anyone else with his experience. But let’s have him off at half time and let’s get someone else get some experience. Sinckler would be my choice, but i don’t mind Williams
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Pablito
Spot on; agreed with all that (see my comments under the ‘Can England still win the six nations?’ thread.
Ej will NOT win a wc in the modern game with a prop like Cole nor I fear a hooker like Hartley (both throwbacks to the past) Yet there are two perfect replacements – Sinkler and George!
Time to give them gametime. The captaincy issue is secondary in mho. Get the right player for the right position and then the issue of captain will sort ITSELF out!
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