RWC Review: No. 7 England

[psychic duck]

The 2011 Rugby World Cup has ended and unfortunately for the rugby faithful, this means that we’ll have to wait four years once again, but don’t be disappointed, this was a special tournament. New Zealand hosted this time around, and with that, we realize that we may not see the rugby mad country host again for a very long time.

We hope that you all savoured every moment and every match, no matter what the outcomes were, the disappointments or heartache. What impressed us the most is how well second tier nations developed over the past four years, which is great news for the sport on a worldwide scale.

Development is the key to this game, as any, and this world cup has opened the door to a large number of new fans.

As we take a look back, Shaggy, psychic duck and M Two One review the twenty participants from worst to first over the next week. The rankings were put together through several opinions based on performances.

Feel free to debate and discuss. The 2011 Rugby World Cup may have ended, but rugby lives on 24/7.

Unfortunately for England, their world cup campaign very much resembled one of the recent campaigns by their football counterparts. On the pitch their performances never really clicked together and off the pitch they were stung by a series of tabloid operations. England had been going backwards right from the backend of the 6 Nations, even after their crushing defeat to Ireland several key players such as Ben Youngs, Toby Flood and Tom Croft had gone on a slump of form.

Despite poor form throughout the pool stages, England went unbeaten following ugly wins against Argentina and Scotland. Some even considered that these ugly wins were just what England does best; grinding out results, much like in 2007. However, at that time the English grounded out wins against stronger opposition in Australia and France and were the underdogs in those matches. This time they had to struggle to win against teams not as good as them.

From watching the side play with their team selections it looked as if the tactics were to play negative rugby; Wilkinson’s selection backfired as his goal kicking went to pieces and he failed to use his backline, especially the wingers in the way Toby Flood can do as he showed at the end of the Scotland match. The majority of fans were yelling for Wilkinson to replace Flood at the start of the World Cup after some decent performances in the warm ups, but after those poor displays in the pool matches, perhaps a braver, less conservative coach would have realised Wilkinson wasn’t playing well and replaced him.

In the centres, Mike Tindall, another survivor from 2003, looked lethargic and ineffective and was being carried by young Manu Tuilagi. In the quarter final, England went into their match again as favourites against France, but a first half French display put a sleepy England right out of the tournament. Sleepy is basically what England were throughout the tournament in truth. With the end of the tournament there has been much debate over what should be done now in preparation for the 2015 World Cup which England will host. There has been much debate over management with it unclear over whether Johnson will jump before being pushed or try to hold on for another four years. Meanwhile, in the background there is a shambles at the RFU which can only be summed up simply as a mess.

On the pitch Lewis Moody probably did the right thing to retire, but that leaves a conundrum as who should be captain. Some say that Tom Wood could be a good leader like Warburton has been for the Welsh and with no other obvious candidates I wouldn’t disagree. If Wood were to play 7 he would be pretty much guaranteed his spot at least for the 6 Nations as Haskell has gone to Japan, Fourie is injured and Robshaw is out of favour. Most of the other players who are more than likely to be starting in 2012 are too young or do not possess leadership qualities.

Other than a few members who will likely be pushed out within the next twelve months, this squad’s time is more likely to come for the home world cup in 2015. There are also several youngsters that have been impressing in the Premiership that will also be good enough within four years time. The question now is who is the right man to construct a side to challenge for the 2015 tournament? - p.d.