Paul Ackford: England take note as All Blacks break away from set pieces
The domination of the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations was due to new thinking away from set pieces and England have seen the signs.
By Paul Ackford
Published: 4:00PM BST 09 Oct 2010
Heads up all you wannabe-England players out there. The goalposts have shifted.
When Brian Smith, England's attack coach, was appointed in July 2008, his principal objective was to get England scoring three tries a game.
At that time the evidence suggested that sides who managed that won the majority of their matches. But two years is an age in the evolution of elite sport, and the emphasis has shifted somewhat.
Obviously, tries are still very much a going concern but, as the Tri-Nations demonstrated, they're two-a-penny these days, and a haul of three won't necessarily see off the top opponents.
As England gear up for their four autumn internationals against New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and South Africa, the first against the All Blacks just a month distant, the talk is of 'red zones' and 'conversion rates', and of new selection criteria which contributed to the demise of former England captain Steve Borthwick.
On the face of it, the desire to pick up points each time England venture into the so-called red zone, an area between the 22 and the goal line, is hardly earth-shattering.
New Zealand have long been past masters of putting away chances, and one of the glories of the Tri-Nations was viewing the significant hike in Black urgency and ruthlessness when they get close.
Everything seems to bristle when New Zealand sniff opportunities. Their concentration and focus improves, they hit contact harder, their energy levels rise.
It is as much a state of mind as anything, an inheritance which is passed on from one generation to the next, and it is very difficult to coach.
England, at present, lack that efficiency, and it is this which Martin Johnson and his coaches are specifically seeking to address, to the extent that they are prepared to jettison conventional thinking as to how England have always gone about winning games.
Think England and what picture emerges? Big, beefy forwards, adept at winning first-phase possession, competent at restarts? Well, that was then.
This autumn the accent is on mobility and havoc-creation. Influential figures within the England coaching set up are now openly talking about going into Tests with a less than dominant scrum and line-out because those are way down the food-chain when it comes to winning Tests.
It's why Borthwick is no longer involved, why Dylan Hartley is currently a smidgen ahead of Steve Thompson in the race for the hooker's spot, why Courtney Lawes, Dave Attwood and Tom Palmer are the new blue-eyed boys of the tight five.
Two incidents during the summer serve as illustration. The first occurred in July when New Zealand confronted South Africa in Wellington in the second match of the Tri-Nations.
It wasn't the All Blacks' 31-17 victory which was necessarily surprising, more the manner of it.
New Zealand scored four tries that day to the Boks' two, but they did so without the conventional platforms. In a game where there were only 33 set pieces – 15 scrums and 18 line-outs – the Blacks lost four of their 10 line-outs and had only five scrummages to work off.
South Africa were flawless in both those departments, hitting a perfect return in all 10 of their scrums and all eight of their line-outs, but came second by a margin of 14 points.
The lesson was clear. It didn't matter that the Boks controlled the ball at scrum and line-out. The killing fields were elsewhere.
The second incident took place during England's second Test against the Wallabies in Sydney when Palmer, a lock who has been on the fringes of the England side for a number of years, found himself one out from a ruck on a short, well-defended blindside on the edge of the red zone.
What happened next can still coax a grin from Johnson because Palmer received a pass from Ben Youngs and, without appearing to take stock, immediately whipped it inside into the hands of a speeding Chris Ashton who scored.
It was exactly the kind of try which England have found so difficult to come by in their recent past and which is very much on their radar.
Of course, a balance has to be struck. It is inconceivable that England would enter a Test with a creaky scrum and a wobbly line-out, but players are now assessed favourably by what they can offer outside of those areas.
Palmer, for instance, is not especially competent when it comes to restart receptions, Lawes isn't necessarily England's best scrummaging lock, Hartley still has moments when the red mist descends, leading to penalties and a lack of concentration at line-out and scrum-time.
Yet, Palmer's mobility and soft hands, Lawes's dynamism and aggression in the tackle, and Hartley's work at the breakdown are held in greater regard.
Borthwick is the glaring casualty of the new thinking. No one was more efficient in the old ways of a lock forward but, unless he bolts on some carrying power or develops some bite at the breakdown, his days in the wilderness will continue.
Ironic that Johnson, one of the great tight forwards of his generation, is presiding over a redrafting of the rules?
Absolutely, but fascinating, too, because unless England shed their old ways and embrace what the game is becoming, they will be chasing Black shadows from next month until the start of the World Cup.
And that will be no fun whatsoever.
