The warning signs were there in the France warm up game re the scrum.
I played 8 at a relatively high representative level but have never really understood the scrum well enough to really pinpoint where the problems ever lie.
Swapping Ford for Farrell so close to the tournament just sends all the wrong messages about how we intend to go about our business; to the fans, the opposition and the players themselves. It not only smacks of inherent negativity but makes the coaches seem indecisive and unsure of themselves. Couple that with the strange decisions on the field to go for tries over penalty kicks and it's all disjointed and incongruent.
Ultimately the problem comes down to the same old thing; lack of creativity and game management intelligence amongst the players. Other than Woodward's team, this has always been a problem for England.
It's a culture issue within the game and extends all the way down to literally U12 representative teams; counties and whatever. I remember as a kid, the flair players, the game managers were always not chosen ahead of a Farrell like player or a big, unintelligent brute.
This continued all the way up to the highest level I played, U18 Midlands; I was always baffled by the selections and to be honest the way that the game was approached by these guys (the coaches) was the main reason I stopped playing for 10 years. It was rugby by numbers; boring and conservative. Gym work over skill work.
Basically the total opposite of how NZ approach the game. My hero as a kid was Zinzane Brooke...I modelled my game on him and to be honest, if he'd been English all the flair would have been coached and beaten out of him by 15 years old.
I played 8 at a relatively high representative level but have never really understood the scrum well enough to really pinpoint where the problems ever lie.
Swapping Ford for Farrell so close to the tournament just sends all the wrong messages about how we intend to go about our business; to the fans, the opposition and the players themselves. It not only smacks of inherent negativity but makes the coaches seem indecisive and unsure of themselves. Couple that with the strange decisions on the field to go for tries over penalty kicks and it's all disjointed and incongruent.
Ultimately the problem comes down to the same old thing; lack of creativity and game management intelligence amongst the players. Other than Woodward's team, this has always been a problem for England.
It's a culture issue within the game and extends all the way down to literally U12 representative teams; counties and whatever. I remember as a kid, the flair players, the game managers were always not chosen ahead of a Farrell like player or a big, unintelligent brute.
This continued all the way up to the highest level I played, U18 Midlands; I was always baffled by the selections and to be honest the way that the game was approached by these guys (the coaches) was the main reason I stopped playing for 10 years. It was rugby by numbers; boring and conservative. Gym work over skill work.
Basically the total opposite of how NZ approach the game. My hero as a kid was Zinzane Brooke...I modelled my game on him and to be honest, if he'd been English all the flair would have been coached and beaten out of him by 15 years old.