'Massive pressure' on England's Six Nations, coaching balance 'not right', ditch the blitz - ANS Q&A with Kay, Healey

Ben Kay: Terrible results, but I think you’ve got to take that with a bit of a pinch of salt to the level of pressure Steve Borthwick’s now under, because England were within a second of winning [against New Zealand], George Ford kicks either of those kicks or doesn’t miss the tackle, they win the game, Maro Itoje doesn’t fumble the kick-off, they win against Australia. South Africa was slightly different, but I think if they’d won three out of four, people would be saying ‘oh, England are massively improving’. So I think the pressure is probably not huge on Borthwick, but what it does do is put massive pressure on his Six Nations campaign. They’ve got a really tough start, they’ve got Ireland and France first up. You imagine if they lose both those games, the level of pressure he’s going to come under going into that game against Scotland, who are playing some great rugby. This autumn would have been a place where he could have taken the pressure off himself ahead of the Six Nations.

Austin Healey: I’m a little bit bored of the what-ifs with England. They’re really struggling to beat the sides above them in the world rankings. They’ve got to fix it because I think the nation expects a little bit more to be honest.

BK: I think the style is part of the problem. We all know that they’ve changed their defensive style, they’ve got a new coach in, that’s not his bread and butter, coaching of that particular defensive system. So even in terms of the authenticity for the players, Felix Jones was this advocate of this way of defending, you’ve now got a guy in who the players know is new to this way of defending, so just in terms of selling it to the players is harder. But I think England have punched themselves out in the first three games. If you look at where their performance peaks have been, it’s been the first 20 minutes. And actually against New Zealand and Australia they dominated the carry, but it’s all one-off runners, rather than any deception. Against South Africa, one-off runners running into brick walls, and that just fatigues the forward pack. If you look at the energy levels of England, the first 20 minutes have been really good, that middle section of the game has been poor - that’s where teams have got ahead - and then as England try and fight their way back in in the last 20 minutes, the energy comes back. I think in attack they just need to play with a bit more deception rather than trying to steamroller teams, and if they play with more deception, it affects the defensive line speed and then your kicking game is better as a result off the back of it. That’s where England have struggled, their game plan has been too simple and too basic, and has put too much of a physical toll on the team.

AH: I think if we take Marcus Smith out of the equation as well, I’m not sure exactly what England have created. If George Ford plays in that 10 shirt, we don’t score three of the tries that we saw in the first three games. Smith’s been central to quite a few of the really big plus points, but you can’t just rely on one player like that. I think the overall strategy of crashing your forwards into brick walls isn’t working. The French don’t necessarily do that, it might look like they do that at times, even though they’ve got a bigger pack, but there’s a lot more deception. You look at the Thibaud Flament try against Argentina, there was deception involved in that.

You look at how Ardie Savea carries, he’s not given the ball and just asked to put his head down and try and make two or three metres, he’s given the opportunity to one-on-one or one-on-two people, and he makes extra yards and fights for the post-metres out of contact. So I think the difficulty is that England are not playing clever rugby throughout the game. Yes they’ve played quite well in the first 20 minutes of games, they did in all those first three games. The rest of the game they’ve played some really stupid rugby and put a lot of pressure on themselves, particularly when they haven’t got the ball. The Australia scenario of Henry Slade stepping past three of his players to close the corner isn’t clever rugby from a clever rugby player.

BK: You have to wonder whether, against South Africa, the one-off runners into one of the biggest defensive areas in world rugby there’s ever been – that area with the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, all those guys – that can’t have been the gameplan going into the game. So where’s that issue coming from? That it’s not been coached well? Is it the players are just freezing a little bit, or was that indeed the game plan? If it was the game plan, it’s unbelievable.

BK: There’s obviously a lot of newness in there with the coaches. I don’t think the balance of it is quite right. We always put so much stead in the No. 1 guy. The best team there’s ever been in my opinion was that New Zealand team built up to the 2015 World Cup. Those ten years, they had the best No. 2 there’s ever been in world rugby in Wayne Smith. Smith went off and tried to become a No. 1 and realised ‘actually I’m better in the No. 2 role’. I’m not saying Borthwick shouldn’t be a No. 1, but you need to get that balance of a No. 2 to be what he doesn’t bring. Borthwick is aware of what he doesn’t bring, it’s probably why he had Aled Walters there. He’s unfortunately left, which I think has destabilised things, because Aled compensated for a lot of the things that Steve didn’t do. All the stuff about Eddie Jones and the last two years and the fallout – why did things change? Because Borthers left the England set-up and Eddie didn’t have him. Borthwick was the glue that held all that together, and took all the flak for the players. He was amazingly important for England, but he can’t necessarily do that role when he’s the No. 1.

AH: When you see all the footage of England training, Borthwick is on the pitch in a tracksuit, running around and he’s tight, he’s in the areas, he’s looking at the detail. For me, a top guy is the guy who’s stood on the scaffolding looking down and getting the bigger picture. You put Michael Cheika there, you put Joe Schmidt there, you put Rassie Erasmus there. I think that for me is probably a better combination. For me, Borthwick made some fundamental mistakes in the Autumn Nations Series. He named a side against the All Blacks on a Tuesday - never ever do that, that is a ridiculous thing to do. Never, ever do that, unless you’re out-and-out favourites to win. There’s just no point doing it, it doesn’t benefit you in any way. He followed a pre-contrived substitution with 20 minutes to go against New Zealand and took off a kicker who hadn’t missed off the tee and was playing good rugby, to put somebody on who hadn’t played rugby for six weeks. He started an outside centre in a defensive system who hadn’t played rugby all season – he had 50 minutes of rugby. These are fundamental errors that cause losses. Would a Cheika, would a Schmidt, would an Erasmus have done that? I don’t think he would, because he’s stepped back from that detail and has a bit more of an overview of the whole scenario, and I think that’s the mistake that Borthwick has made.

AH: I think they need to decide on a style. Defensively it’s not worked. Don’t keep banging your head against a brick wall, go back to fast line speed and connected drift, I think that works better. Concede a bit more ground admittedly, and don’t put as much pressure on the backfield, but you won’t concede missed tackles and line breaks like we have been doing. In attack, play for 80 minutes rather than the first 20. The attack has looked quite good in the first 20, especially when they get their big carriers in flow and momentum. And then do things that are different, give the ball to Marcus Smith as much as possible.

BK: Ditch the blitz, I’ve got no problem with them trying it but I just don’t think it’s worked. Particularly now they haven’t got Felix Jones, they need to move on from that. The other thing is the deception in the forward carrying. It gives you those two or three extra metres, but you do it without the physical toll on the forwards' bodies. I think the attacking game will flow off the back of that - you give them a bit of front-foot ball with a bit of flow and rhythm, and this backline will suddenly click into gear. Marcus Smith will have more time to do what he’s been so good at, but it has to be less attritional. There are times when you have to be attritional, but there are also times when you have to manage that so that defenders are like ‘what are they going to do’. At the moment, I think all defences know what the England forwards are going to do.

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