No room for deals – time to get serious
NICK CAIN
READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK
MAKE no mistake, the 2023 World Cup starts for England this weekend. Even though head coach Steve Borthwick's team do not play Argentina in their tournament opener in Marseille for another six weeks, if the squad is to break out of the mediocrity in which it has been mired for the past three years it must rip in to the four August warm-up matches like men possessed.
It is hard to remember a lower key England build-up to a World Cup, and it reflects the low ebb of the game in this country after years of administrative bungling, in which the RFU and Premiership Rugby are the main culprits.
Rugby union in England has never needed uplift in the professionalonal era more than it does now, and it is why the stakes are already sky-high for head coach Borthwick and his squad on this last weekend in July.
It is their final week of preparation for the first match of the double-header against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday – and their pre-tournamentrnament schedule will become even more intense when they face the Welsh again at Twickenham before taking on Grand Slam champions Ireland in Dublin.
By the time England return home to face Fiji in their last August Test, we will have a clearer picture of whether they have a prayer of being the dark horses of the 2023 World Cup. We will have discovered whether new strength and conditioning coach Aled Walters has managed to work a minor miracle in terms of rectifying the declining standards in fitness.
Just as crucially, we will see whether Borthwick has got his selectionection right, and whether he has managed to build a team with the ability, unity, purpose, and determination, to challenge for the Webb Ellis trophy.
What we knew prior to Borthwick presiding over a six week summer training camp, including a high-temperaturee segment in Verona during the height of the scorching Italianan summer, is that he did not have the luxury of a confident, settled side in which the component parts fired like a well-oiled machine.
The same is true for the England head coach's Wales counterpart Warren Gatland. In spite of the successful relationship they forged on the 2017 Lions tour, the pressure on both men to build a successful platform for the World Cup makes it highly unlikely there will be any of the warm-up Test tradeoffs we have seen before.
Clandestine agreements between rival coaches stretch back to the 2003 World Cup preparations 20 years ago when Clive Woodward and his French counterpart, Bernard Laporte, arranged for England to play their full strength team at Twickenham against France's reserve outfit, while the reverse happened when the second match of the double-header was played in Marseille.
The fact that England lost the second match 17-16, sustaining their only defeat in what would have been an unrivalled international world record winning run of 23 matches, stretching from the end of the 2002 Six Nations to the 2003 World Cup final triumph in Sydney, still rankles with some of the world champion side.
Such misgivings would be a luxury for a current England team whose recent ledger of losses in the last year to Argentina, South Africa, Scotland, France, and Ireland – four of them at Twickenham – shows how much ground they have to make up.
It explains why, this time, these are not so much World Cup warm-ups as full intensity must-win Test matches. It means that Borthwick has none of the selection slack that most of his World Cup predecessors had, and it dictates that he should have his starting 23 for Cardiff picked already. The England head coach should have no hesitation in making a statement of intent by announcing his team at the start of this week.
This is not a time for Borthwick to be telling every player in the squad that they will get a game over the next month against Wales, Ireland, or Fiji, as part of a selection merry-go-round. It is the start of the business end of the World Cup, and it is the head coach's responsibility to put a premium on producing a team that works effectively, and in unison, in every aspect of play.
My reservations about the England pack, and in particular the flaws in the starting front row of Ellis Genge, Jamie George, and Kyle Sinckler, have not changed. However, Borthwick, and his new scrum coach, Tom Harrison, have the great good fortune that all of the world's best scrummaging teams are grouped in the other half of the lop-sided World Cup draw. The upshot is that they will only have to hold their own against Wales, Argentina, and Australia, none of whom go into the tournament with a reputation as scrummaging powerhouses.
If the England forwards can come together as a powerful unit which plays with dynamism and controlled aggression this August, and goes forward at the set piece and in the loose against Wales and Ireland, then the building blocks will be in place to launch the backline.
This has the potential to pose multiple threats to most defences, but it will depend on veteran scrum-halves like Ben Youngs and Danny Care being able to raise the tempo. It will also depend on fly-half Owen Farrell releasing the likes of Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence at every opportunity, although both centres will have to raise their work-rate and accuracy in midfield significantly. If those working parts come together an England back three permed Anthony Watson, Joe Cokanasiga, Henry Arundell, Max Malins, Jonny May, and Freddie Steward has what it takes to finish with a flourish. from
That leaves plenty of ifs and buts hovering over Borthwick's England. However, we can say with far more certainty than usual that these August warm-ups will be true Tests which provide genuine answers about the quality of the team, and its preparation.
