England bow out in not so surprising style.

So the end of the road….

So I’m away from the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand for just one game & England crash out in unconvincing style against a French side that even before Saturday’s match had been playing some uninspiring rugby, and even faulted against Tonga just the weekend previously.

Perhaps I could easily point to jinxes, bad luck omens and black magic of my presence away from New Zealand leading to the downfall of England but that would just be lazy. In truth, from watching all of the group games it’s not a massive shock. England had been unimpressive even if winning in the pool B ties topping the group comfortably with four wins. But each game came with a must-try-better element to it. Aside from the crushing of the Romanians I never truly left each game happy for the next game. I just hoped each game would yield an improved performance, but against France they failed to deliver.

The French raced into a 16 point lead early on with two tries from Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard. Martin Johnston’s New midfield formation of Flood & Wilkinson failed to work, with poor passing and failed kicking the hallmarks of the duos performance.  The French on the other hand took advantage with the errors in the breakdown with Yachvili slotting two penalties away.

 England battled back late with a try from Northampton Saint’s Ben Folden and Mark Cueto two minutes to go offered a glimmer of hope, but in truth the French had the upper hand throughout the match. In the second half England lacked drive and the creativity which was lacking in previous games the only outlet seemed to be the bulldozing style of Manu Tuilangi.

 So England where outplayed by an organized French side, ultimately key decisions of personnel in crucial games and off-field antics paid for their World Cup campaign. The buck stops at Martin Johnston and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he is indeed relieved for his duties after a ‘full and frank’ review from the RFU.

The issue of off-field antics should perhaps be the one of most concern. Whilst in New Zealand a tabloid maelstrom raged in the UK. From Mike Tindell canoodling with a blonde ‘friend’ in Queenstown to a trio of England players asking a member of hotel staff in Dunedin for an Aussie kiss, this could arguably have been one of England’s most scandalous tabloid fuelled tour in living memory.

I understand the issue of building team-moral, and the occasional pint of 8 is a strong element of English rugby culture. But surely when the aim is to win the World Cup a spot of midget hurling and backpacking flirting can wait? Just take a look at Australia and New Zeland sides, both sides have 3 World Cup’s between them. But during my time in both countries no talk has been made of late night drinking or over zealous antics in New Zealand by the media. Maybe their press is just smarter than ours.

Then onto the team selection dilemmas faced by Martin Johnston, it seems ultimately the choice of the once talismanic Wilkinson was one error to far. Wilkinson, whilst strong in the tackle he was poor in the kicking department. It’s the area Wilkinson’s needs to be firing on all cylinders if England where to have any chances of lifting this years Rugby World Cup.

However both kicking at goal and positional kicking was poor throughout the tournament. Perhaps the writing was on the wall after his first against Argentina when he missed four penalties in a row. Martin Johnston even recognised his error of his ways against the French but instead of dropping Wilkinson he placed in Flood for Tindall in a move which was misplaced and ultimately backfired.

So after a tournament which promised so much for England it ended in a flat, uninspiring performance. After each previous match post I often signed off with a familiar ‘must try better for bigger tests’ but the English have no more tests and our now set for the long ride home. The sweet chariot will rumble on regardless, even if it is without the likes of Johnston, Wilkinson or Tindle, but now we have the six nations to focus on. It started so Sweet, it ended not-so-sweet. Seems apt.