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One of my 6 part series where I will use iRB statistics and our own recollections of the tournament to paint a picture of how each team approached the 6 Nations. Hopefully these should get a nice debate going.
Make no mistake about it. The stereotype of boring England, 10 man rugby, kick kick kick etc is truely dead. This is a team actually armed with quite a potent backline who are interested in passing and scoring tries. Tries win you matches is a motto Johnson has clearly taken to heart. However well publicized disciplinary problems was a major drawback as was a weak goalkicker and England had to settle for runner up.
Tries: I would describe this as a VERY positive year for the English national team in terms of tries scored (by their recent poor standards). Since 2001 the amount of tries they scored has fallen EVERY year without fail. 28 tries in 2001 going to a low of a mere 8 last year. However this year they bucked the trend doubling that try tally this year with 16, their highest in last 4 years.
Passing: Last year England had the lowest amount of passes of any team. This year it was the opposite with them passing wide at every chance they could get. What was also different was the source of England’s tries. In 2008, two thirds came from the set piece possessions of lineout and scrum, but, this year, the largest proportion of their tries came from turnovers and broken play complimented with wide passing to deep runners.
Setpiece: England showed the strongest ability at retaining their own lineout, as well as making fewest misktake in throw ins but were unable to exert that pressure on their opponents. Interestingly they also had fewest lineouts of any team with them keeping the ball in play the longest of any 6 Nations team.
Forwards/Backs: This is a team who has gone the old school route of piano movers and piano players. Englands forwards simply did not want the ball. Their job was to secure ball for the backs and did this to good effect with the pack having very good success rate at the breakdown. Whenever they found themselves with the ball they passed it away to a faster man with a better pass. It is a stark contrast to the Irish pack who took ball into contact whenever possible. 148 passes made by English forwards compared with 85 Irish forwards all tournament. The result was 15 tries scored by backs, 1 scored by forwards.
Kicking/Discipline: A 59% goalkicking rate is no way to try win a Championship and this greatly hurt England in the narrow defeats they suffered. Another fact was the amount of penalties and cards. England were by far the highest penalised team in the championship. Their opponents received some 40% more penalties and free kicks than they while England also suffered 6 yellow cards – one more than the remaining 5 teams received combined. It is also worth noting that every try England conceded was in the second half suggesting they may lack the abiltiy to play for 80 minutes.
Key players for their system: Riki Flutey brought a lot into that England team and enabled fast ball to get wide playing almost as a second flyhalf. Lee Mears threw very well for England and didnt slow up ball when England wanted to go wide like many front rows do. Harry Ellis got the ball moving quickly and assisted his forwards at the breakdown when things got messy. He was a nuisance at times for #8 at base of scrum and had a good try count. Delon Armitage was a man who fronted up when the chips were down. Operated as a fantastic broken play runner getting tries against France, Wales and Ireland. |
