England leave Steve Borthwick with more questions than answers

Posted on

MIKE BROWN: England’s performance against Samoa leaves Steve Borthwick with more questions than answers but they won’t change ahead of Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Fiji

  • England’s vs Fiji was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the quarter-final
  • But the poor performance and narrow win left Borthwick with more questions 
  • Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results 
  • Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results

England’s final Pool D game was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the quarter-final against Fiji. Steve Borthwick would have wanted his team — and the midfield combination of George Ford and Owen Farrell — to gel.

But for me, the opposite happened. England were fortunate to win and it has left them with more questions than answers.

I’m sure many fans will be thinking England’s approach needs to change completely. But I don’t think that will happen. I’d bring Danny Care in to start against Fiji but I think England will continue with Ford and Farrell.

The second-half yellow card for Tumua Manu killed Samoa. It allowed England to get out of jail through Care’s late try. It’s not a good sign for England they struggled against Samoa. That’s because Fiji play a similar way to their fellow Pacific Islanders.

But they are a far better side than Samoa with more attacking threats — as was shown by their win at Twickenham in the August warm-up matches. They will also be more clinical than Samoa if England give them the same opportunities.

England’s final Pool D game was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the quarter-final against Fiji but it turned out to leave Steve Borthwick with more questions

The second-half yellow card for Tumua Manu killed Samoa as it allowed England to get out of jail through Care’s late try

The fact Borthwick replaced Ford with Marcus Smith in the 51st minute showed me he didn’t think his partnership with Farrell was working. 

When Ford went off, Farrell went to 10, Smith came on at full-back and Freddie Steward moved to the wing with Joe Marchant coming inside to centre. As far as back-line reshuffles go, it was pretty drastic and I’m not sure it made a significant difference!

Ford and Farrell started off OK actually. They used Manu Tuilagi as a decoy runner with Farrell coming out the back. 

I thought Farrell was a bit rusty and that was no surprise really given he’d only played once against Chile since his ban. It wasn’t just Farrell though, I thought most of the team looked a bit flat — especially in the first half — off the back of their down week.

I thought Farrell and England’s display was summed up by his penalty being ruled out because he’d run out of time on the shot clock. That is unforgivable.

The fact Borthwick replaced Ford with Marcus Smith in the 51st minute showed me he didn’t think his partnership with Farrell was working

It was clear Farrell had no idea the clock was ticking down and it was partly down to the fact he spent so long giving the referee some chat. It was the right decision for Borthwick to make changes when he replaced Ford.

The fact England came away with a win is to Borthwick’s credit as he had the courage to make a big call.

But the big question is what he does against Fiji. Keep Ford and Farrell together? Or move Farrell to 10? Or even start Smith as playmaker and keep Farrell at 12?

Even though I didn’t think the Ford-Farrell axis had the opportunity to work against Samoa, my hunch is Borthwick will persevere with them at 10 and 12.

Source: Read Full Article