It was only 5 years ago that England had the best team in the world and our side was littered with world class players. The England Manager, Martin Johnson, was one of them but you could also put Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill, Neil Back, Matt Dawson, Jonny Wilkinson, Will Greenwood and Jason Robinson into that category.
Sir Clive Woodward was lucky to have such resource available to him and his former captain Johnson now finds himself sadly lacking in the world class department. The really sad thing to me, which was so apparent on Saturday when we were destroyed by South Africa, was that we were outplayed in every deparment. They were faster, stronger, bigger, more aggressive and higher skilled.
The Springboks have now beaten us 6 times on the trot and that is not a lucky run, it is down to them having a far superior team. If you lined up the two 15s from the match, there is not one Englishman who would make the SA side. The same could be said if you match us up against the All Blacks and almost, but not quite, for the Aussies.
Woodward has been in the press this week saying that there needs to be a whole review of the structure of the game in England but this seems odd as only a few months ago the media were lauding the progress made between the RFU and the clubs. Finally it seemed, they had reached an agreement where all parties were happy and the national team would move forward as the pinnacle and key focus of English rugby.
So if the game as a whole is ok, could it be that we just happen to be in a phase right now where we have no really class players? It happens sometimes. People are searching for bigger reasons but maybe the guys available to us are just not good enough. English club rugby is in good health, there is plenty of money in the RFU and there are structures in place to develop the game at all ages groups. So maybe we just find outselves in a bad patch.
We should remember that England are a young side in development. I know this is often used as an excuse but Woodward's side took time to grow and so it might be for Johnson's team. For me there are both encouraging and worrying points to the English squad right now.
On the plus side, we have a few guys who I believe can grow into really good international players. They are James Haskell, Matt Stevens, Dylan Hartley, Danny Care, Danny Cipriani, David Strettle and Delon Armitage.
The worrying thing is that they do not have quality experienced players around them to help bring them through. The guys with the most caps in the English team on Saturday were Jamie Noon and Steve Borthwick, both players who often couldn't make the side in years gone past and who now come up short when matched up against truly class players like Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha or Jean De Villiers.We have too many good club players in the XV who are not international quality, and who have been exposed at the highest level.
I also believe there are some fundamental problems in the way we play the game that need to be addressed.
First is the breakdown. If you watch South Africa or New Zealand, they attack the breakdown, commit players and create quick ball. Their aggression in this area is immense.
England on the other hand do not clean out the opposition which means that firstly the scrum half gets slow ball and secondly the opposition do not need to commit men to he ruck, which allows them to put numbers in defence.
I feel sorry for the England half backs as they didn't get quick ball throughout the whole game at Twickenham. Having said that, Care has to shoulder some blame as he often hesitated at the base of the ruck. Too often he was 3 to 4 seconds too slow getting the ball away which allowed their defence time to realign, by which point the English midfield was running at a brick wall.
Watching New Zealand against Wales I was struck by the speed of the delivery from the ruck to the backs. They move the opposition around the pitch which allows their backline to run at gaps as the defence struggles to keep it's structure.
The second area of concern is the lineout. This is one that has been a worry for some time and Stuart Barnes, commentating on Saturday, hit the nail on the head. He pointed at the simplicity of the SA line. They have good jumpers who pretty much jump up and down. This contrasts with England who seem, in his words, "to do the foxtrot", with all the guys in the line moving about and seemingly making it as hard as possible for the thrower to hit his man.
I appreciate why they have these moves but often they don't work and the opposition win the ball. In the heat of the battle it must be hard for the forwards to remember all the calls and their role within each one. I think the Springbok approach of keeping things simple makes far more sense.
I don't think it's all doom and gloom for England. There will be players who come through and make the grade given time but for now we need to accept that we do not have the greatest side in the world and we must adapt our game accordingly. We can still win games but we need to play smart rugby which means quick ball, good kicking for territory and no silly penalties.
I believe in Martin Johnson and he is the man to lead us during this time. The unfortunate thing for him is that he simply doesn't have the resources right now that his old boss once did.
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