George Ford’s masterclass at fly‑half against Argentina is going to give Steve Borthwick a selection headache when Owen Farrell comes back from suspension, because his 27‑point haul was the best performance I’ve seen from him for either club or country. It’s a nice headache to have and beating Argentina gives Borthwick the breathing space to nail down his selection at fly‑half during the rest of the pool stage but it is a decision to be made nonetheless.
Part of the reason is that Manu Tuilagi and Joe Marchant were so effective together in the centres and as England have been craving cohesion in midfield, I wouldn’t be tinkering with that part of the team. Manu may not have seen the ball as much as he’d have liked but he brings that focal point and defensively he was excellent. And Marchant is your engine in midfield, with great work‑rate and an ability to make really important covering tackles.
To look at Ford’s performance in a bit more detail, as a fly-half, whenever you lose a forward to a red card, it affects your systems from an attacking point of view. You have one less forward spread across the field so there’s an adaptation on the shapes you need to run. What Ford did brilliantly is that he twigged so early on that forwards have a certain energy level and they expend it because they need to scrum, they need to execute the lineout, maul, tackle, carry and ruck and when there’s only seven of them it’s an extra five to 10 minutes’ work, which is hard graft.
As a result, energy conservation of the forwards is extremely important. Ford kicked early in phases and he did not veer away from the plan. Having someone like that to make the right decisions at the right time, staying cool under pressure, sticking to the kicking strategy that was working, is so valuable. And what really impressed me with the kicking strategy was that very rarely did they go to Emiliano Boffelli. They targeted both Santiago and Mateo Carreras and they dominated the kicking contest, giving them the opportunity to get the ball back, move it and force Argentina into giving up penalties. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever see Argentina play that poorly again but all credit to England for making that happen.
It’s a tight squad that England have, we’ve picked away at the things that have gone wrong but they’ve stuck together and the difference this time is they didn’t panic. Then you rely on game leaders like Ford, I thought Alex Mitchell did really well too. It would have been easy for him to come in and want to try and push things but he looked to take opportunities when they were on offer and gave Ford the time and space he needed as well.
Once they started to get the scoreboard ticking over, that pressure becomes a factor. Ford understands that and when you get in that situation you take yourself out of the team environment and he grabs hold of the game by the scruff of the neck and says to himself, “I know what I need to do and everyone needs to back the choices that I make”, and he just sat in the pocket and pulled the strings like a master.
He finished the match with three drop goals and personally I think it is the hardest skill in rugby. It is such a difficult skill to execute, which is why you don’t see them very often. Just watch his technique, especially the first one – a short backlift, crisp connection and a straight follow through. All of a sudden England were 9-3 ahead and Argentina became twitchy.
Knowing Steve and how meticulous he is in his planning, drop goals are something the coaches and players would have spoken about. This wasn’t a knockout match but it was the next best thing for England and the World Cup is about winning, not about pleasing the crowd. Drop goals can be a very effective way to do that.
Across the whole game, the most impressive thing was the defensive performance with 14 men for so long. Kevin Sinfield did a brilliant job in preparing the players. They were aggressive, there was total alignment, they took away time and space from Santiago Carreras at No 10 and they gave the Argentinian forwards nothing. The adjusting tacklers were slowing the ball down, there were no quick rucks for Argentina to attack from.
I loved working with Kev. As a human being he’s inspirational but the relationships he has with the players is fantastic. His knowledge as well – coming from rugby league he has an ability to transfer his thoughts and principles on defence from a league background and combine it with his knowledge of union structures.
What I found, even if the results didn’t show it, was his ability to get the guys to work hard for him. Get the guys to believe what he’s about as a person and his systems and structures as well. I’m really happy for him because that performance was a long time coming and he should take a lot of pleasure from that.
