Shortly after arriving in Rome, Jamie George, ever the cricket fan, was discussing the merits of Bazball and how a similar approach may manifest itself within the England squad he now captains. With tongue firmly in cheek he suggested he might attempt a drop goal in the first two minutes against Italy as something akin to ramping a six over the wicketkeeper’s head.
Suffice to say this never materialised during England’s three-point victory against Italy that leaves onlookers uncertain whether much progress has been made since the World Cup and with the visit of Wales to Twickenham looming on Saturday.
George Ford is correct to say the scoreboard is misleading in the sense that England were in control after seizing the lead early in the second half and seeing out the contest with the conservatism that took them to the World Cup semi-finals, but it is alarming that they never looked remotely like scoring a four-try bonus point.
Ford spoke of England’s intent to play – they kicked significantly fewer than 1,000m which used to be the target – and how that has been the biggest shift in mindset since the current squad got together. Again, that is a fair assessment of the first half when he linked well with Henry Slade, Elliot Daly and Tommy Freeman, though the concern is that other than Daly’s try, it was not particularly threatening against a team that perennially finishes bottom of the pile.
Baby steps then, at best, towards their cricketing brethren but, perhaps surprisingly, it is their new defensive approach that most apes Bazball. Felix Jones has arrived from the Springboks with a lofty reputation and a penchant for blitz defences. Slade put it succinctly when he said: “It’s just a lot more aggressive.” It is hardly reinventing the wheel but it is a new system to learn for England and, inevitably, there were a few teething problems. Offside penalties were given away, 19 tackles were missed and Italy’s tries – as magnificent to watch as they were – came as a result of England losing their shape in defence.
Listen to Steve Borthwick and his players explain their reaction going 10-0 down, however, and there is reason for optimism according to his risk versus reward approach. “There are going to be times when you make a mistake, there is an opportunity then to take a little bit of a step back but the challenge then is to go even harder and push even harder,” Borthwick said. Ford added: “The main thing is calming everyone down and saying ‘mistakes happen’ but we can’t then not commit again for the rest of the game. We’ve got to keep going, we’ve got to keep committing to it.”
It was a similar message from George before the match and afterwards he spoke about a fear-of-failure culture that had previously pervaded. It was something that Eddie Jones – who was in the crowd at the Stadio Olimpico – no doubt contributed to but something that he could never fix, unable to stop the “hand grenades in the back of a Jeep”, as he would put it.
“That’s certainly been the case previously,” George said. “When Steve and I met a couple of weeks previously, we were talking around that. I don’t necessarily think it’s risk. It’s having the courage to execute the gameplan as best as we can.”
Going further back, Borthwick speaks from a similar experience. “I was playing in teams where players were saying they don’t want to make mistakes because they want to get picked next week. I don’t want to be the one getting criticised so I try to create an environment where I want the players to commit wholeheartedly to what we’re trying to do as a team and I back them to do that.”
Put like that and similarities with the cricketers become evident, even if there are limits. If Bazball is about vibes, Borthball will always be driven by data. “Post World Cup, depending on which rankings you look at, we were ranked third in terms of line speed by how many times you caught the attack two metres behind the gain line,” Borthwick said.
“South Africa and Japan were the top two but we want to improve that area. There are going to be some mistakes right now, it’s just how I can keep encouraging.”
