If there was a nagging feeling that England’s earlier two wins over Italy and Wales had papered over some cracks on this rebuild below Steve Borthwick, then essentially the most humiliating day in Twickenham historical past ripped them open and uncovered the embarrassing core beneath.
Never earlier than, in 152 years of taking part in worldwide rugby, had an England staff suffered a house defeat this heavy. France obliterated their hosts 53-10 – surpassing the 42-6 loss to South Africa in 2008 – to provide Borthwick’s males a humbling reminder of precisely the place they stand within the pecking order simply six months out from a World Cup.
As a reminder, France aren’t even the very best staff on this Six Nations. That distinction belongs to Ireland and, as luck would have it, England head to Dublin subsequent week to spherical off their marketing campaign. Get your calculators on the prepared – primarily based on this efficiency, that 76-0 defeat to Australia on the ‘tour from hell’ in 1998 is likely to be below menace.
England have been shambolic, as their opponents dominated each aspect of the sport and scored seemingly at will. Any credit score Borthwick had constructed up as an ex-England captain, with a powerful teaching CV early in his profession and because the preferrred, easy man to comply with the drama of the unpopular Eddie Jones period has possible been extinguished. He might want to discover solutions, and quick, as a result of one other show like this and the knives will quickly be out.
The gray, dreary skies mirrored England’s efficiency and, have been this an English GCSE essay, the chance to say the rain that lashed down at Twickenham was a type of pathetic fallacy that mirrored England’s temper can be too good to show down. Certainly, the positives of the earlier two video games have been washed away in a horror first half.
Full again Freddie Steward was the one Englishman to emerge with any credit score from the opening stanza, as a few booming kicks helped clear early strain, and the strive he scored within the second half after a robust carry was not more than his efficiency deserved. However, as if to sum up the futility of England’s day, even he was outjumped by Romain Ntamack within the build-up to a different France strive later within the second 40.
While the pre-match speak was over Borthwick’s choice to start out Marcus Smith at fly half as an alternative of Owen Farrell, the England coach is unlikely to be any nearer to realizing whether or not that is the optimum set-up shifting ahead. The Harlequins playmaker confirmed the flashes of athleticism we’ve come to anticipate, with a few half-breaks and shimmies previous French defenders providing tantalising glimpses of what his explosive skillset might present in something resembling a functioning assault.
Instead, England have been merely unable to get out of their very own manner because the limpest of first-half performances ensured the sport was over as a contest by the 40-minute mark. It wouldn’t have mattered whether or not Smith, Farrell or a first-rate Jonny Wilkinson was within the No 10 jersey, nobody might have marshalled this shambolic model of England to a successful show.
The English pack have been constantly dominated from minute one. Take nothing away from the French again row of Francois Cros, Charles Ollivon and Gregory Alldritt, who have been all very good, however they confronted minimal resistance as the house forwards folded.
Ollivon was instrumental within the first strive, with simply three minutes on the clock, as his fast break and opulent offload to Thibaud Flament ultimately allowed Ethan Dumortier to attract the ultimate defender and ship Thomas Ramos for a easy run-in.
The second and third scores noticed all of them mix as, firstly – following Antoine Dupont’s beautiful 50:22 field kick that gave his aspect an attacking lineout – the pack mauled their manner ahead and allowed Flament to burrow over. Then, on the stroke of half-time, Les Bleus’ scrum splintered England’s entrance row, Alldritt had an acre of room down the blindside and he offloaded to Ollivon for the strive. The 27-3 deficit England confronted on the break was their largest within the 117-year historical past of this fixture. If England hoped that will be the nadir, they have been sorely mistaken.
Alldritt and Cros specifically made mincemeat of the opposition on the breakdown, successful ruck penalty after ruck penalty as they obtained excessive of the ball a lot faster than their English counterparts.
With a pack shifting backwards, England had little high quality ball however once they did, the backs invariably squandered it. As the rain poured and circumstances grew to become slippery, knock-ons have been a depressingly common sight. Anthony Watson spilled a excessive ball simply outdoors his personal 22, Jack van Poortvliet fumbled forwards on the breakdown on a number of events and a gifted 22 entry after a blocked kick was instantly knocked on.
Van Poortvliet – requested to play the position that Danny Care does for Harlequins with the intention to unlock Smith’s full potential – continued his sub-par Six Nations. A sliced field kick straight up within the air on quarter-hour deep in his personal half after he demanded gamers be a part of the ruck to kind the protecting caterpillar summed up the dearth of invention and error-strewn nature of his show.
He was hooked by Borthwick simply 5 minutes into the second half and in a merciless coincidence, his alternative Alex Mitchell instantly popped the ball completely to a marauding Steward for England’s solely strive. The lone shiny spot on the darkest of days. His previous membership coach Borthwick rightly has religion within the gifted younger No 9 however Van Poortvliet’s latest performances counsel Mitchell will possible be beginning the finale in opposition to Ireland.
Not that Steward’s rating signalled any type of turnaround. Instead, Flament went over for his second strive, Ollivon neatly grounded the ball after England have been pushed again over their very own line and Damian Penaud twice marauded clear down the fitting by questionable tackling to take the rating above 50 and full the humiliation.
The disarray that England discovered themselves in was neatly summed up when, with no match backs left, back-up hooker Jack Walker was compelled to return on for centre Ollie Lawrence halfway by the second half. No 8 Alex Dombrandt shifted into the back-line, taking part in as a type of winger. He was the person who missed a deal with on Penaud for the French flyer’s first rating but when it’s a coach’s job to place his gamers able to succeed, then Cimbrandt can rightly be pissed off with Borthwick. Something has gone badly improper when he’s left one on one out vast with one of the vital prolific wingers in world rugby.
It felt nearly unfair that this was Ellis Genge’s debut as captain – a everlasting black mark on his worldwide profession that, in truth, wasn’t actually his fault. There was little he might do to cease the tidal wave of embarrassment and his administration of referee Ben O’Keefe was usually good. Even essentially the most nit-picky of critics who say England ought to have kicked the factors when 10-0 down early on, slightly than going to the nook and spurning the possibility, need to admit it was irrelevant within the ultimate reckoning.
Where England go from right here – who is aware of? Well, the literal reply is to Dublin to face the unstoppable drive of the No 1 staff on the planet in seven days’ time however a lot larger philosophical questions loom and it’s onerous to have religion that they’ve the solutions.