For England’s slow starters, it has become the dreaded ‘C’ word. Not an expletive, but an elusive quality. Cohesion. Ireland have it in abundance and their next opponents are once again rushing to acquire it.
According to head coach Steve Borthwick, the problem lies in the concentration of Test talent. In recent times, Ireland have more-or-less turned into Leinster with different shirts on.
When they line up against England here on Saturday, there will be 11 players from the Dublin-based provincial side in Simon Easterby’s starting XV, in keeping with a well-established trend. There are three from Connacht and one from Munster; a small gang of outsiders at the Leinster party.
What it means is that the Irish should hit the ground running. They will be expected to understand each other’s games and habits; all the little cues which reveal their on-field intentions.
In theory at least, there will be a telepathy which comes from familiarity, not least in the decision-making hub at half-back, now that Easterby has opted to hand the No 10 shirt to Sam Prendergast, to resume his provincial alliance with Jamison Gibson-Park.
Compare this with England’s predicament. Their squad is more scattered. While having a deeper pool of players to choose from is undoubtedly a major asset, the task of gelling with limited preparation time is a logistical headache.
England head coach Steve Borthwick pictured preparing his team for Saturday’s trip to Ireland
England’s starting XV in Dublin on Saturday will feature players from eight different clubs
At the Aviva Stadium, eight clubs will be represented in the visitors’ XV. The various contingents are small, as follows – Sale 3, Bath 2, Harlequins 2, Leicester 2, Northampton 2, Saracens 2, Bristol 1 and Exeter 1. There is no dominant core on anything like the scale of Leinster’s in the green ranks. What it adds up to is less engrained understanding. It has to be manufactured. Fast.
Borthwick sounded the alarm about this particular problem in the build-up to Saturday’s daunting Six Nations opener for his team, against the title holders.
‘One of the great strengths we have is the Premiership, but it is a challenge too because we spread players over nine clubs,’ he said. ‘We’re looking at ways to get players to understand each other quicker and more effectively. That is another reason why there is consistency in selection, to build relationships and cohesion.’
There’s that infernal ‘C’ word. It matters a lot. England do not have the luxury of easing through the gears this weekend. They have to hit the ground running – fluently – to have a chance of causing an upset. But they don’t just face a potential cohesion imbalance in their first game.
Seven days after their showdown with the Irish, Borthwick’s men will square up to title favourites France at Twickenham. Like Easterby – and Andy Farrell, when he is not in Lions mode – Fabien Galthie, their head coach, is able to call upon an influential core from one powerful club. The line-up he named this week to face Wales features eight Toulouse players in the starting XV.
‘Our players are spread over a lot of clubs, whereas other countries have more a concentration,’ said Borthwick. ‘The obvious example is Leinster, but there’s also Benetton with so many Italian players, Toulouse with such a great spine of the French team and Bordeaux with a number of France backs.
‘When England have had dominant teams in Europe – think of Leicester and Wasps and Saracens – they would have big contingents in the England team. It is certainly a factor which helps in international rugby.’
Given this context, it is perhaps no surprise that England have suffered so many false starts to their annual campaigns, in the Six Nations especially. In 2020, they lost against France in Paris, followed by three successive years when Scotland beat the ‘auld enemy’ in round one. Last year, England edged a 27-24 win over Italy in Rome, but it was the closest they’d come to defeat in 31 Tests against the Azzurri.
Maro Itoje faces a fearsome first Test as England’s new captain since replacing Jamie George
England had six Leicester forwards in their matchday squad for the 2023 World Cup final
Borthwick’s England class of 2025 have spent some time in Girona ahead of the Six Nations
In the most recent autumn series, Borthwick’s side were edged out 24-22 by New Zealand in their first of four fixtures. Two years earlier, they lost their first game of the 2022-23 season by a point at home to Argentina, which hastened the departure of Eddie Jones. This is a persistent issue.
Right now, there is an unusually even spread of players from various clubs in the national team. In the 2019 World Cup Final in Yokohama, England had six Saracens in their starting XV – including a strong spine of Jamie George, Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola and Owen Farrell.
They were the dominant club of the era and powered that Far East crusade. When England won the World Cup in 2003, they had six Leicester forwards in their matchday squad for the final in Sydney.
After Warren Gatland took charge of Wales the first time, in 2007, he launched his tenure by picking 13 Ospreys players to start at Twickenham and they stunned England to ignite a charge of Grand Slam glory. Deploying established units is a time-saving ploy.
At various junctures, England have tried to accelerate the quest for cohesion, by leaning on club combinations. Danny Care and Marcus Smith played together. Sometimes Alex Dombrandt would be added too, so there was a Harlequins connection at 8-9-10. Go back further and Ben Youngs would often partner George Ford at half-back, as they did for so long at Leicester.
Borthwick would have carefully considered the potential benefit of picking Fin Smith in tandem with his Northampton side-kick, Alex Mitchell, for this next game. But that benefit would have been out-weighed by Marcus Smith’s recent game-time with the Henry Slade-Ollie Lawrence midfield axis.
According to Martin Gleeson, who served as England attack coach in the latter phase of the Jones era in charge, the rush to achieve cohesion at short notice means that there is a need to simplify the messages. ‘There’s not a lot of time and everyone is coming from different clubs, so you have to play in a way that suits your strongest players,’ he said.
‘You have to focus on the most important things that will get you the victory. There’s not much time so you have to be focused on certain, key areas. You can’t cover every part of the game, so you have to strip it all back to the basics and make sure they are bang on. You can’t expect to just come together and be good straight away at all parts of the game. So, you have to keep it simple to start with. You can’t complicate things too much.’
Sam Prendergast will start at fly half for Saturday’s mouth-watering clash with Ireland
England will start the Six Nations as third-favourites to win the title, behind France and Ireland
When England come into camp from their various clubs, without a lot of time to prepare, there is a need to accelerate the reintegration and bonding process, by encouraging different factions to mix at meal times and around the team hotel. Gleeson, who is now back in rugby league at Warrington Wolves, added: ‘There are loads of things like that, but sometimes I think there can be too many of those forced things. Good teams come together organically.
‘If you get that unity into your team, naturally, then you become hard to beat even when you don’t play well. But it’s tough; trying to get that, in a way that everyone is working for each other and it’s not fake and forced. How you harness that could come down to the leaders. Itoje is captain now and he’s just business. He loves it. He’s so diligent and he won’t take any s**t, but he’s a nice guy too.’
The promotion of Itoje to the captaincy could have an impact on the dynamic within the England squad. But there have also been important changes to the systems behind the national team, which provide more scope for early organisation.
It was Lawrence, in conversation with Mail Sport last week, who suggested that the gathering of squad and fringe players at so-called alignment camps was aiding England’s bid to start well, with improved cohesion. The new Professional Game Partnership between clubs and the RFU allows Borthwick greater access to his key players and means that certain strategic principles could be outlined before the pre-championship training began in earnest.
During Jamie George’s year as skipper, England players were encouraged to have more contact with each other outside of Test windows, in the hope it would enhance understanding, in defiance of all the club demarcation lines.
On Saturday, if the centres function more effectively and are able to link better with Marcus Smith to find space, then all the efforts behind the scenes will have been worthwhile. But they will be doing well to match Ireland’s cohesion. ‘We are a crucial part of the team’s flow within a game,’ said Lawrence, about the midfield pairing. ‘Towards the back end of the autumn, we spoke about the fact that we weren’t quite firing on all cyclinders. We felt like it improved in the last couple of games.’
In terms of finding a flow in how he and Slade interact with Smith at 10, Lawrence added: ‘Marcus can create something from nothing and you do start to pick up the cues. We have to get on the same page as quickly as possible and that’s the benefit of these camps. We have had continuity for a while now, so you start to pick it up quicker each time you come back into camp.’
England will need to have picked it up quicker than ever, or they risk being left behind by the Leinster-dominated hosts on Saturday. Ireland’s leading province have won all 14 games they’ve played so far this season, which is bound to translate a sense of momentum into Easterby’s side – meaning they have an extra advantage over the English too, as well as plenty of that ‘C’ word.
