Yes I know this is a cricket blog but sometimes you just can’t ignore the big sporting story of the day. And that was England’s defeat to South Africa in the rugby World Cup final in Japan.
It was a big defeat I’m afraid. Eddie Jones’s team were thoroughly outplayed and there can be no complaints. It’s not like we lost on some inexplicable rule like the number of turnovers or least number of knock ons. South Africa were ahead in every single department.
I can’t pretend to be a rugby expert. I follow the premiership and I’ve probably watched most of England’s internationals over the last 30 years – mostly in the pub where my beer consumption warps my objectivity – but I did actually fancy South Africa from the start. Although I was still hopeful that England might win if we played well.
Why did I fancy the Springboks? Because it rarely goes well when all my friends assume that England will win! What’s more, South Africa seemed to have the more compelling narrative with their first black captain in charge. I’m a bit of a romantic when it comes to sport sometimes.
I also fancied South Africa because finals are often tense and the team with the best set piece usually wins. It’s hard to play free flowing rugby when the pressure’s really on; therefore I suspected it would be a dour match that descended into an arm wrestle. And unfortunately there’s nobody better than the South Africans when it comes to awful games like this.
What really depressed me, however, was the performance of England’s scrum. You simply can’t win rugby matches if you’re giving away 3 points every time you knock the ball on in your own half. I’ve seen England (and the Lions) murder the opposition in the scrum in the past and it’s often decided the outcome of the game. Today the boot was firmly on the other foot. In fact, it was probably the worst performance by an England scrum that I can recall in 30 years. Has our front row ever been utterly destroyed before?
Although I thought South Africa’s defence was also superb, and they were excellent at the breakdown too, their scrum basically won them the game. It’s humiliating to be pushed backwards at scrum time in what’s a very macho and physical contest, and England never really got a foothold in the game as a result. One wonders whether Dan Cole will ever play for England again? Although I doubt it was all his fault.
Overall, however, England’s World Cup should still go down as a success and the squad should be proud. It was sad to get beaten so comprehensively, and the manner of the defeat will hurt, but we played brilliantly to beat both Australia and New Zealand beforehand. I think most people would’ve settled for beaten finalists before the team left for Japan.
In the end I sense that England simply weren’t as good as people thought we were after the New Zealand game. Yes we’re a very good team (a bit like Wales) who can beat anyone on their day, but there are a lot of teams in world rugby like that. The Six Nations should have showed us that this team isn’t the finished article quite yet. Remember when we surrendered that massive lead against Scotland?
I heard some people argue before kickoff that the current side is better than the 2003 team. But that was always crackers. Clive Woodward’s team had been No.1 in the world for a while and arrived at the World Cup as favourites. Every single player was world class with the possible exception of Trevor Woodman, Mike Tindall, and Ben Kay (who were merely very good).
The current England team, on the other hand, are very talented but they’ve still got some growing to do – not to mention some consistency to find. Anthony Watson, for example, is not as good as Jason Robinson. Ben Youngs isn’t as good as Matt Dawson. And England’s back row are effervescent and exciting but they’re not Hill, Back, and Dallaglio just yet.
And as for the brilliant Maro Itoje, who did so well against the All Blacks, he may become as good as Martin Johnson one day. But that day might not come until 2023 (or even 2027). He’s still only 25 years old after all. The same might be said for the rest of the team too. I see only good times ahead for England with this core group of players.
There is a silver lining to all this, however. England’s failure in Yokohama means that our cricketers are now surely odds on to win the BBC’s SPOTY Team of The Year award.
I admit this feels like pretty feeble compensation right now, but with all the controversy off the pitch in English cricket at the moment, I’ll gladly take the small victories when they come along.
Enjoy your weekend folks! I might not have time to write about England’s T20 tomorrow so you’ll probably hear from me again on Monday.
James Morgan
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It’s never a straight forward thing to watch England play any sport. We can’t seem to make life easy for ourselves and the poor nervous wreck of a punter.
I really thought we had it by the short and curlies today but after 5 minutes of poor kicking, passing and carrying we just knew this was going to be torture again. South Africa are a decent side but we were just awful, in almost every aspect of the game and once our scrum was getting pushed back and the ensuing penalties were being kicked the writing was on the wall.
Did we freeze on the big occasion, were we out thought tactically, or were South Africa a better team. Probably a bit of all three, but whatever it was there was precious little entertainment till the last 20 minutes, when some Rugby was at last forthcoming. Up to then, though we were bad we were still a converted try away from the lead, a measure more of South Africa’s limitations than our stubbornness.
We deserved a hiding but I’m not sure what players can learn from this situation for the future.
If this had been a cricket test match it’s the equivalent of losing by an innings.
Disagree about Itoje. Think he’s already a better rugby player than Johnson, who was a great captain, but nowhere near as talented.
Poor old Eddie can kiss his knighthood goodbye, his half time team talk didn’t seem to change things much.
“In fact, it was probably the worst performance by an England scrum that I can recall in 30 years. Has our front row ever been utterly destroyed before?”
It reminded me of the first Lions’ Test in 2009 when Phil Vickery had a nightmare against the same player. The Lions’ tour in two years should be a classic if SA can get their strongest team on the park.
Rugby has shown cricket how to run a WC with FTA TV coverage, a rising nation as hosts and a large number of teams qualifying.
It was a great tournament. England were excellent until that final. Losing Sinckler in the first three minutes was extremely unlucky. I hope Jones continues. Looking forward to the six nations
Don’t know how many of my fellow bloggers went to a pub or club to watch the final, as there were a lot doing it, but the attendance at ours, where they’d laid on breakfast a free beer in a package was pretty thin.
Maybe, despite all the media hype, public interest in the sport has yet to be reflected in active support.
The number of punters watching the cricket World Cup final were significantly higher at our local, which is most definitely a footie pub. There were more there to watch European cup games.
Well, there is the small matter of the Cricket being in England and the rugby in Japan in 2019. Do you have pub attendance figures in 2015 to back up your claim, when it was the other way around time-zone wise?
The media coverage in this country was greater for the Rugby than the cricket, with terrestrial TV taking the games live and showing highlights at a reasonable hour, so I don’t see the venue as making much difference. Only a few thousand were able to attend the cricket matches anyway.
Don’t have any stats for pub attandances. If you read the wording of my blog I’m not making any claims, just putting out an observation, that’s why I was asking for other bloggers experiences. I only know more folks were at our local for the cricket, which went on all day, than the Rugby, even though there was food and beer laid on.
Here, there were far more watching and talking about the rugby than I ever saw about the cricket. Even now, a day later there is more discussion over how poor englsnd were than when England won the cricket
Essentially, I don’t think the cricket win has or will help the game in the slightest and it’s down to many factors but a big one is white ball is not something that captures people’s attention
How much of that is to do with the fact that terrestrial TV covered all the Rugby games live and showed highlights at prime time slots?
Also there’s the small matter of all the home nations being involved, not just England, so more of the population in this country would have a partisan interest, there being millions of Scots, Welsh and Irish living here, which always increases general public support.
RWC audience averaged 8.9m and peaked at 12.8m.
Good job England lost – otherwise following the cricket model, the RFU on winning the WC would immediately scrap the fornat and replace it with Sevens played in 20 mins by teams with ridiculous names advertising toxic food.
Shhh, some marketing men may be listening
Apparently there is something called Rugby X.
Not really sure what it is but apparently it’s “fast furious and frenetic” or something like that a year.
I just think they were a victim of the fixtures they faced. They had no choice but to peak in the semi-final, otherwise they wouldn’t have made the final. Having to beat Aus, NZ and SA in succession was simply a step too far.
I think it’s more a matter of freezing on the occasion, so brain as well as brawn isn’t working properly, as there was no period in the game where we looked as though we had a plan, we were just reacting to what our opponents did. That hadn’t happened before. South Africa weren’t that good, as until the last quarter we were still within a converted try of a win, even playing that badly.
Well here’s another statistic for you. No side that had beaten the All Blacks in the WC has ever won it.apart from SA who did it in the final in 1995. And SA are the only side to lose in the preliminary stages going on to win the WC.
Ron