Borthwick will need to make tough calls
JEREMY GUSCOTT
OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK
When England face France at Twickenham it is a two horse race, and, with home advantage a welcome bonus, anything and everything is possible.
However, the World Cup is on the horizon, and England are not at their best, while France are ranked second in the world and are the reigning Six Nations champions – so they have to be favourites.
The last time we saw England able to challenge the world was in 2019, and with that team there was a different mindset and expectation. This England team is not comparable. It is building, but the reality is that it is not likely that it can get back to its 2019 status quickly.
That is going to take first, time, and second, talent. England do not have time on their side, and neither is there a huge amount of surplus Test quality talent available to head coach Steve Borthwick.
An added factor is that Owen Farrell is not at his best, and I was very surprised that Marcus Smith did not get more game time against Wales. I could not understand the decision to send Smith on in the last minute, because it showed Borthwick had no confidence in him – and players pick up on that. England needed a spark, and Smith might have provided it, but we will never know.
The signs are that Borthwick is moving back towards the 10-12 combination of George Ford and Farrell which Eddie Jones favoured early on, but with this England pack and a lack of quick ball I cannot see it working as well again. Farrell and Ford have forged brilliant careers, and you don't become average overnight, but I have never been sold on their combination, even if sometimes it has worked well.
Just how long Borthwick puts up with Farrell missing goal-kicks, and not passing when he should, is the sort of selection conundrum that all coaches face – and if it continues for too long they have to be tough enough to make the difficult calls.
The best teams have blunt force power in midfield, and you can see the effectiveness of Damian de Allende for South Africa, Gael Fickou or Jonathan Danty for France, and Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki for Ireland. Now Sione Tuipulotu is doing the same for Scotland, and has helped to give those players either side of him, Finn Russell and Huw Jones, a big advantage.
Looking at the Wales game, England created far more opportunities but simply did not execute too well outside the tries. It's all about communication and co-ordination, and you would not expect the level of unforced errors by England, or the amount of passing not going to hand, or the decisions to kick when you should have run.
It shows a lack of confidence, and if you freeze-framed positions when players had the ball, many of them will think they should have passed, or should have run and recycled, rather than kicked it, or allowed themselves to be isolated and turned over.
Among the England plusses against Wales was Anthony Watson looking so sharp on coming back into the side on one wing, while on the other Max Malins' good form continued. However, elsewhere in the team it was mixed. For instance, when Jack van Poortvliet first came into the side at scrum-half in Australia last summer he showed great composure. His box-kicks were on the button, he got to the breakdown quickly, and he passed well, but now, like many in the team – including Maro Itoje – he is below par.
To do so, Borthwick may have to make the brave decision to take underperforming players off when sometimes there is only 25 or 30 minutes played, in the same way Jones did. It should not be career-ending, but it does tell them that they have not played well enough to deserve their spot in the match line-up.
The French have not won at Twickenham in the Six Nations since 2005, but to players it doesn't always mean a whole lot. In my second Five Nations campaign as an England player we went to Cardiff having not had a victory there for 27 years, and we won – however, because I had not played at the ground before it didn't have the same relevance for me as it did for blokes who had been there a few times and lost.
France are individually brilliant, and at the moment they simply have more talented players in their squad than England. The proof of it is that if you selected a combined team from the two nations the vast majority would be French. That is why you have to hope that England rise to the occasion against France and find a performance because, if not, they will get a walloping.
In fact, most of England's high performing players against Wales were easy to spot because there weren't many of them. Freddie Steward deserved to be man-ofthe-match and, along with Watson, Ollie Lawrence, Lewis Ludlum, Ollie Chessum and Kyle Sinckler, all stood out. However, the rest of the 23 have to produce that level of performance.
There's been some question of fly-half Romain Ntamack not being at his best, but for me he has not struggled. Even so, his main rival, Mathieu Jalibert, has at least been given a chance by Fabien Galthie to show what he can do off the bench – unlike Smith.
The French team have a few missing pieces, so the puzzle isn't yet finished, but if they play with any guts at Twickenham on Saturday, they should win. However, there is still a sense that France are not putting teams away as they should, and that might just give England a chance.
