England are yet to produce any real cogent, fluent attacking rugby halfway through their World Cup warm-up schedule.
Steve Borthwick and his coaches are unfazed by the startling position of two matches almost totally devoid of ingenuity, invention and steadily built phase-play attacks.
All the best teams in world rugby develop multi-phase attacking sequences as a matter of course. And yet England have failed to do that even once in 160 minutes.
Ireland are the archetypal attack-builders, and England will experience first-hand on Saturday in Dublin just how meticulous Andy Farrell’s side are when it comes to manoeuvring an opponent around the field.
As the world’s top-ranked Test team, Ireland could put England right where they want them for the bulk of the Aviva Stadium clash.
And yet, England will still believe in their ability to set their game straight in time for World Cup opening night, almost whatever happens this weekend.
Argentina will be thinking entirely otherwise, with the Pumas doubtless pumped up to take down England in Marseille in their Pool D opener on September 9.
England’s new attack coach Richard Wigglesworth believes scoreboard pressure going against Borthwick’s side in both warm-up matches against Wales has hampered the team.
The former Test scrum-half believes falling behind has changed the narrative structure of those encounters. The trouble is, time is fast running out for England to rewrite their own story.
When quizzed on why England have failed to fire so far, Wigglesworth replied: “There’d be a few things, it’s early on.
“There’s always scoreboard pressure in everything. There’s not been any sort of breakaway from us early on when we maybe should have been a bit further ahead.
“That maybe changes the narrative of the game, changes how you feel on the ball.
“There’d be a few different reasons that we’ve been working incredibly hard to address to make sure we’re better for next time.
“There were definitely some of those contact area issues from the first two games that we want to improve on.
“Early in pre-season you tend to get them but we’ve definitely accelerated our learning on that.
“There’s no doubt we’ve got to improve in attack. We’re working incredibly hard to do that.
“It tends to be the last thing to click into place. But the appetite from the players to get it right gives me great confidence that we’ll get it right.”
