Rugby: England's Video Nasty

The England squad have been refreshingly honest in their assessment of their own performance against Australia in the first test last Saturday, with Steve Thompson acknowledging that the side became too preoccupied with their dominance in the scrum, whilst their work in open play was substandard.

Toby Flood has joined in the self-flagellation, admitting that the team's video analysis session had forced the players to own up to their weak performances. However, it is one thing to recognise a bad performance, and another to fix it, and no player has more to learn from last Saturday's test match than Flood himself.


Flood needs to impose his authority on the second test


Flood's abdication of responsibility at key stages of the game was alarming. Late in the first half, with England fruitlessly pounding at the Australian defence with pick and drive tactics, the forwards were allowed to keep the ball for phase after phase, despite their being driven backwards on several occasions. At no stage did Flood appear to demand the ball from Danny Care, his scrum half, or if he did, Care ignored him, which would reflect badly on both players. After perhaps a dozen ineffective drives, the ball finally went to Flood, only for him to immediately pass it back inside, back into the traffic of the Australian pack, and the whole cycle began again.

Early in the second half, England produced their one piece of flowing rugby, as a counter attack from Ben Foden went through the hands of Chris Ashton and Simon Shaw, before Mike Tindall was pulled down just short of the line. This was a perfect situation for England to score a try, the Australian defence was still rushing back into position, and the ball was only yards from the line. However, several phases later, it became clear that England only had two tactics: pick and drive, or crash ball from a forward standing at first receiver. Flood did not touch the ball throughout the entire attack, lasting several minutes. At one stage the camera pulled back to reveal that he was standing at inside centre, with a forward at fly-half waiting for the next crash ball. As an international fly-half, he should have been the playmaker, demanding the ball, demanding that the side play off him, whether it be crash ball, or going down the line to the backs.

These two episodes typified the way the entire game was played by England, never trusting the backs, never thinking about the game, never showing smart leadership as opposed to blood and guts-style leadership. The latter is simply not enough at the highest level.


Cooper showed impressive confidence in his first test performance

Much of this is obviously down to tactics, and the coaching staff are to blame for a one-dimensional game plan, whilst the players must take responsibility for their inability to play with their heads up, and their blinkered belief that all they needed to do was to keep pounding away. But if Flood is being constrained by the tactics, then he should take control of the situation, everything Australia did on Saturday, they did through Quade Cooper, their fair less experienced fly-half. Care was undoubtedly part of the problem: his slow service and lack of tactical nous was shown up by the way that Ben Youngs greatly increased the tempo when he came on, but again, it is up to his fly-half to tell Care what service he wants, and to make sure he gets it.

If Flood is going to be the long term solution at fly-half, he must take responsibility for the way the game is played, he must want the ball, especially with the try line begging. Watch good international fly-halves and they show the confidence and sometimes the arrogance to demand the ball and to try and make things happen. Last Saturday, Toby Flood seemed frozen, too meek to even try.