England are returning home next weekend, ready to beat the All Blacks at their own game – thanks to the tactical liberation which was launched in the midst of a Six Nations inquest.
It is not only the national stadium which has gone through a rebranding process. Twickenham is now known as Allianz Stadium and Steve Borthwick‘s team are becoming known as deadly attackers and dazzling entertainers. From the depths of an abject defeat against Scotland at Murrayfield back in late February, England collectively saw the light and instigated a transformation which has been remarkable to behold.
Now, they believe they can use their expansive game to claim the prized scalp of New Zealand. The host nation will go into their Autumn Nations Series opener in front of a fervent full house fuelled by a mix of confidence and frustration after two near-misses against the same opponents on the far side of the world in July. England lost 16-15 in Dunedin and 24-17 a week later in Auckland, but rattled the All Blacks and shocked the Kiwi public with their daring intent.
It all stemmed from a chastening setback in Edinburgh, as Borthwick’s side were beaten 30-21 by Scotland and the penny dropped about the need for a profound change of approach. Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care was a senior figure in a squad which went into soul-searching mode. He told Mail Sport: ‘We were trying to do it from the start of the Six Nations but, for whatever reason, it wasn’t working out.
‘We’d talked about taking our attack to the next level and wanting to be more expressive with it, but at the time we were bedding in a new defence system. It’s not that we hadn’t been practising our attack, but when something new comes in, it needs a bit more time. The attack just wasn’t clicking.
Steve Borthwick has helped transform England into a team becoming known as deadly attackers and dazzling entertainers
They believe they can use their expansive game to claim the prized scalp of New Zealand when they return home next weekend
It all stemmed from a chastening setback in Edinburgh when England lost to Scotland in the Six Nations
‘In that Scotland game, it all went wrong in terms of dropping balls and being strangely inaccurate. Players who don’t normally make those sort of mistakes were dropping the ball or throwing bad passes. After that there was a fallow week then, all of a sudden, things just clicked.’
According to Care, the transformation wasn’t the result of major technical adjustments. England didn’t rip up all their plans and start from scratch. They just agreed on the need for a mental shift, to adopt a bolder attitude. Encouraged by the coaches – particularly attack coach Richard Wigglesworth – they embraced the urgent need for risk-taking and fearlessness in attack.
‘It was just about an attitude to go, “Sod it, let’s have a go”,’ said Care. Wiggy said to us a lot, “Look at the players we’ve got. We’d be foolish not to use the qualities of these amazing players. Get the ball in the hands of our dangerous players and special things will happen”.
‘Steve (Borthwick)’s big thing is that he wants England players to feel free on the pitch. That hasn’t always been the case in some eras when you felt constricted by the need to do what you thought was meant to be done.
‘Steve, Wiggy and Kev (Sinfield), all that week, were just going on to us about, “Have more freedom. You players really take ownership of this”. The attack leaders – George (Ford) and Marcus (Smith) – had a massive say in it. It was purely a mind-set thing. Sometimes in Test rugby, games are so tight, so you often think, “Let’s just set up, put the kick up and put more pressure on them”. But we started thinking, “Let’s just give it a crack”.’
What followed, in the team’s last appearance at what was then called Twickenham, was a seismic result and momentous performance, as England ran amok – inspired by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s impact in his first Test starting appearance – to beat world No 1-ranked Ireland 23-22. Care earned his 100th cap that day and savoured the way the team marked that occasion in fine style, before going up a notch in Lyon a week later, even though they fell agonisingly short of another win.
‘I remember being sat on the bench and it was obviously an amazing, special game for me, being my hundredth,’ he said of the Ireland match. ‘I was thinking, “This is incredible, the boys are just on it”.
‘It was an absolute joy to watch, but I actually felt it was better the week after against France. Look at the try when Marcus linked with Ben Earl. I was behind the posts warming up and it was so quick that the French, who have one of the best defences in the world, couldn’t live with us. I remember just thinking, “Wow, that’s it. That’s what we can do”. It was like New Zealand attacking; quick ball, the defence can’t set and you beat teams with your speed.
Attack coach Richard Wigglesworth (left) is one of the men responsible for the transformation
What followed the discussion was a seismic result and performance against No 1-ranked side Ireland
‘We should have won that game, but I left after that campaign thinking, “That’s the England team that our fans will want to see – that’s the team that I want to see. This is how it should feel. This is how it should look. But we can get even better”.’
Mail Sport columnist and former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar has followed England’s progress this year with interest and recognised the magnitude of their transformation. Despite being on the other side of an intense cross-border rivalry, he has admired the way they have evolved – if not gone through a dramatic revolution.
‘The best way I can sum up the change in England’s attacking approach is that now they are playing to space and not to structure,’ he said. ‘Before, they were playing to structure and not to space. It’s been a very noticeable and successful shift.
‘The switch-up isn’t totally down to the fact that Marcus Smith now seems to be first-choice fly-half. Don’t forget that for the two games that started England’s new free-flowing era – against Ireland and France in the Six Nations – George Ford was the starting playmaker. Ford drove England very, very impressively in those two games as they scored some quite brilliant tries.
‘At international level, you have to have some structure, but England are playing to their strengths. Their best players behind the scrum, like Alex Mitchell, George Furbank, Tommy Freeman and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, are young and energetic. They want to run the ball. There would be no point in picking someone like Furbank over Freddie Steward at full back and asking him to chase kicks.
‘Steve Borthwick deserves a lot of credit as coach for realising who his best players are and tweaking the tactics to suit them. Feyi-Waboso, for example, would not have been able to thrive under the previous England gameplan. The back three sum it up for me. Furbank, Freeman and Feyi-Waboso don’t want to get sucked into an aerial battle. They don’t want to keep kicking and chasing balls. Instead, they run it back with intent.’
All the focus has been on the adventurous streak England have developed in a hurry, the desire to attack out wide, use their pace and skills, and score tries. But Biggar made a telling point about how none of that would be possible without an increase in their power game, thanks to a growing stock of gainline-busting assets.
Former England international Danny Care has compared their recent attacking play to that of New Zealand’s
Mail Sport columnist and former Wales star Dan Biggar said that England ‘are playing to space and not to structure’
‘One other thing that has allowed England to be more expansive is the number of explosive, dynamic ball-carriers in their side,’ he added. ‘In my career with Wales, many of the England teams I played against were heavily reliant on Billy Vunipola to truck the ball up. If you stopped Vunipola, there weren’t many others to pick up the load.
‘Now, England have Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, George Martin and Chandler Cunningham-South who can carry really well. They enable England to win the physical contacts and that allows them to play to space more out wide. The bottom line in international rugby is that you can’t throw the ball wide if you’re not making metres in the tight. That’s why England’s increase in carriers has made such a difference.’
Changes of personnel have aided the change in approach. Feyi-Waboso brought a new dimension when the rookie Exeter flier was added to the back line, while two Quins up front have also made a positive impact – Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter. With established figures such as Ellis Genge and Ford back in the selection mix now, England will be optimistic that the feel-good mood will translate into another significant success, when they confront the All Blacks.
Biggar is backing them, despite the inconvenience of being without their pre-eminent scrum-half. ‘I think England have got a brilliant chance of beating New Zealand, although I think Alex Mitchell will be a huge loss at scrum half,’ he said. ‘What Mitchell does, having been his half-back partner at Northampton, is keep the tempo high.
‘There is a bit of pressure on England this autumn. They’ve played some lovely rugby and the Ireland win was fantastic. But let’s not forget they lost to France and to New Zealand twice. They should have won both those All Blacks matches. It’s all very well having a new style of play, but that will only last so long with the fans if they’re not winning. England need to start turning narrow defeats into victories.’
Biggar pointed to the ball-carrying abilities of the likes of Ben Earl as a plus for England
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is one of the stars of the new set-up, flourishing in the current system
England will fancy their chances of getting one over on New Zealand on the back of narrow defeats earlier this year
Care is now an outside observer, having retired from Test rugby after the Six Nations, so he is full of anticipation about the autumn campaign, as an up-beat fan and pundit. ‘England were really close in the summer to winning in New Zealand,’ he said.
‘I’m just hoping that this autumn, especially in that first game against the All Blacks, we let loose and give the ball to the players we’ve seen carving up in the Premiership, like Feyi-Waboso, Freeman, Furbank and Sleightholme. I want to see those guys in space.
‘This autumn, I’m sure Steve and the coaches will be saying, “Yeah, we showed glimpses of brilliance but we have to be way more ruthless”. We have to show we can do all that stuff but close games out.
‘I think they can win on Saturday. I can see England having a great performance against New Zealand. The All Blacks will cause trouble, of course they will, but I’m backing the boys to hit the ground running and win at home.’
