I hate to rehash this thread, and I don't know if these points have been touched on already but I was reading this article and Liebenberg (former French int'l) had this to say about England's faults:
"If you look at the match stats they are quite frightening; 65% possession to England, 96% set piece completion, 92% ruck completion and only one tackle missed in 107 attempts! That's outstanding and reading those, you'd expect a 20-point winning margin.
"But their issue is efficiency, or rather lack of it. Break test rugby down and you should be looking for a minimum of seven points for every five minutes spent in the 22 of the opposition. There are no prizes for territorial and possession dominance and quite frankly the way England are finishing, most opponents are prepared to let them keep the ball and take their scores from turnovers and English mistakes," said Liebenberg.
"You then have to look at decision making. Let's examine Danny Care, a man with 50 caps; his pass for the intercept try may as well have been announced with a press release. He was guilty not only of stepping twice before passing, but once he had shuffled the ONLY option available was that pass. He'd closed off every other play that had existed earlier, so any centre worth his salt would have gambled on that interception.
"Further, England's one great strength is their push defence. They are exceptional in this area and press with great speed and momentum. However, the easiest way to unlock a push is with a chip and catch or grubber kick, exactly the play SA made. The defending scrum-half is the key man here and should be corner flagging behind the push to sweep the kick. Care had a key role there and his absence led to another Springbok score," noted Liebenberg, a man famed for the organization and power of his defence.
"South Africa need a lot of credit for their rugby IQ. They identified the weakness in the push defence and they were also happy to let England bosh the ball up all day safe in the knowledge that England's attacking impotence and lack of tactical awareness would let them back into the game.
"With ten tests before the World Cup, England will be very, very worried. And the biggest concern will be the lack of shape and rugby IQ that's blighting their game," remarked Liebenberg.
source: Planet Rugby
Not my opinion necessarily, but this has been discussed extensively it seems on this thread, where England stands, and I just mean to say I feel ppl have exaggerated quite greatly the trouble England are in. And if anything, again, it's flattering because it implies ppl all thought England were *that* great (that they're surprised England couldn't beat the All-Blacks or Springboks).
