England v Japan: Five takeaways as Steve Borthwick learns 'literally ...

Following a 59-14 victory for England over Japan at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday, here’s our five takeaways from the international clash.

Steve Borthwick’s England finally ended their horror streak of five consecutive losses as they recorded their first win under the new branding of the Allianz Stadium, scoring nine tries courtesy of Ben Earl, Sam Underhill, Jamie George (2) Ollie Sleightholme, George Furbank, Luke Cowan-Dickie (2) and the impressive Tom Roebuck, who really added energy to England’s attack in the last quarter.

Japan tried manfully to deal with England’s power and size, having their moments with two tries from Naoto Saito and Kazuki Himeno, and but for some handling errors under pressure and an unconvincing set-piece, may have had a few more against an English defence that really fell apart at times as Japan attacked them when the game became unstructured.

Earl, alongside his skipper George, shone in the forwards, but the starting backs simply lacked structure and direction, and it took the introduction of Fin Smith, Roebuck and Harry Randall to get some mojo into the sluggish England attack.

A win is a win and, given the horrendous year England have had, they’ll take anything. But the one thing they should take out of this game is their handling and attacking towards the end looked a darn sight better than what we saw for the first 60 minutes of the match.

England haven’t had much to celebrate this year. Like a jobseeker hearing they’ve finished second in every career opportunity they’ve applied for and they’ve struggled to put the bread on the table for their friends and fans alike. However, in all of their losses it’s fair to say, bar a couple of scrums, their forwards have stood up to the task and the issues have been elsewhere within the side.

It was therefore hardly surprising to see that the destruction of Japan was almost exclusively up front, where George Martin, Earl, Will Stuart, Ellis Genge and George all delivered some welcomely acceptable performances.

The first three tries all came from a conservative and unsubtle approach – either a big man winning collisions with someone smaller, or the sheer extra poundage in the driving maul proving impossible to stop by the much smaller and lighter Brave Blossoms. The hooker shirt yielded four tries – telling you something about England’s ambition – but also demonstrating pragmatism and execution of an important skill.

England’s one player of notable improvement, Will Stuart, had a wonderful outing in all aspects. Being powerful around the breakdown, committed in defence and dominant in the scrums are all standard fare for a Test tighthead, but the precision 25m pass off his right hand to Chandler Cunningham-South, which saw the impressive Ollie Sleightholme crash over for his fourth Test try, was so delightful that the Bath tighthead may well find his front-row union card rescinded when he opens tomorrow morning’s emails.

Against Japan, power is always a potent weapon, but it was all a little too predictable and the Twickenham faithful might well be disappointed they didn’t see a little more guile over the obvious grunt.

In a fixture like this, any form of progress is hard to measure. England are a tier one side playing against a team with an average of nine caps per player in their 23 and anything other than a comprehensive win, which on the scoreboard this was, would be cause for alarm.

However, some of the stats make telling reading. With a scoreline of 59-14, to learn that Japan made almost as many post contact metres (263 v 302) tells you two things. Firstly, England are carrying well below their weight and power, and secondly, that there’s a hell of a lot of tackles being missed for that many metres.

England were turned over 11 times and missed 23 tackles straight on and a host more that they should have made had someone been in the correct position to make the hit.

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In attack, only one player, replacement Tom Roebuck, who had a cracking little cameo, made more than one line break and he benefited from the structure that Fin Smith created once he came on, an appearance and performance that perhaps was much overdue for England. To see the final score and realise that Japan made as many line breaks as England is greatly concerning.

But there were some rays of light. Aside from Fin Smith and Roebuck, Asher Opoku-Fordjour showed his promise at tighthead, Cunningham-South went well in carry and once again, Ben Earl topped almost every one of England’s personal stats in carry and metres.

For Japan, they can walk away defeated but unbowed. The performances of Saito at nine and Himeno at openside are two key players that the new Japan can build around, with Nik McCurran adapting well to 10 and both locks putting in powerful performances, Eddie Jones’ Japan is indeed a project but it is inching forward.

Everyone has owned an ageing car that they’ve hung onto for a little bit too long in the hope that it’ll stop going wrong. Eventually, the time comes when you admit to yourself it’s time to bite the bullet and trade the old girl in as it’s simply dysfunctional and never going to improve. That’s precisely where Steve Borthwick finds himself after four matches where he’s learning literally nothing positive about his squad.

At nine, Jack van Poortvliet demonstrated once more that at Test level he’s far more poor of decisioning than he is fleet of foot. In the centres, Henry Slade’s dismal career in an England shirt continued – his neat kick for Freeman aside – as his inability to control the corner of the defence or to add any form of pace in attack can be tolerated no longer. He has held England’s attack back for years with his inaccurate passing and handling but his defence, the very reason Borthwick brought the Exeter centre back in, is costing England big time.

Meanwhile, watching Nick Isiekwe being absolutely melted by a player half his size in the last few moments just about summed up the lock’s career and the watching Jones, a man who subbed Isiekwe off after 23 minutes of a Test, might have allowed himself a wry smile as once more the Saracen was folded in half in contact.

Are players reacting well enough to Marcus Smith or is he trying things that others simply do not read? England could have tried Luke Northmore, Alex Lozowski or Fraser Dingwall in midfield this November, and learn something about their depth, and it’s particularly disappointing that England’s backs once again delivered a stuttering and incohesive performance with ball in hand.

Maybe even change the 10 up and give the lesser Smith, Fin, his opportunity to do what he does for Saints so well. Simply put this game was a development opportunity that was not so much lost as knowingly thrown away by the coaches.

England have had some issues in terms of their coaching staff turnover, especially within the defensive system. The simple truth is that the ‘D’ blitz that England are using is hardly new or innovative, but it requires great skill and fitness to execute correctly.

This Autumn, the holes have been so big and so many tackles have been missed you have to wonder if it’s the coaching or the skills and intellect of the players that’s at fault.

This system relies upon three things. One, a complete commitment to self-recycling to get back into the line to maintain numbers. Two, clear, square spacing with no closed shoulders in the line and, three, complete control of getting men across to defend the second wave between 12 and the openside wing.

All of this relies upon clear communication from the defensive leaders; calling the rush, organising the spacing and, above all, getting the right defenders into the right places, so the big men are not left with one-on-ones against back three runners. In addition, the openside wing needs to blast out and in, to cut out mispassing, with the man in the boot covering across.

England have a propensity to leave tight forwards in the 12 channel that keep getting picked off. We saw it against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, and once again in this game, as communication between Cunningham-South and Martin left a huge hole for Japan to exploit.

In this instance, a number of things failed. Martin didn’t communicate with his flanker, but he was exposed on the wide side due to the lack of a defensive back coming around to number up. Couple in the openside wing staying out with his man and refusing to pinch then you have some idea of the number of errors England made in missing just one tackle.

The failure of England’s defence can, right now, be blamed on the obvious issue of coach turnover, but there’s a lot more to their shortcomings than just a change of voice. Do England have the athletes and intellect to defend in this manner? Only the Six Nations will tell us for sure.

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