England Rugby

Australians may not be confident ahead of the three-test series with England in June, but former Wallaby great Michael Lynagh went into hyperbolic mode when he suggested the Red Rose would whitewash Australia down under.

Lynagh told BBC Sport England's Australian coach Eddie Jones was a key reason for the upturn in England's form: "Eddie's going down there to win the series 3-0 and why not? It's realistic. It's a good squad."

Lynagh is a measured pundit, so his remarks need to be taken seriously, but on this occasion he is very wide of the mark. Much of the fear derives from the Australian sides' poor performances in Super Rugby and the inconsistency of many of Michael Cheika's key men, but there is no way they will lose 3-0.

Australia are too strong at home

Quite simply, it is too improbable for Australia to lose three consecutive home tests against this England team. England have only ever won three tests against Australia in Oz full-stop, and two of those were in 2003, ironically when Jones was coaching the Wallabies. Last time Australia played at home, they beat New Zealand.

Even when the Lions toured in 2013—and were far superior to their hosts—Australia snatched the second test. And it's worth remembering that back in 2013, when the Lions had not won a series for the past three tours, Lynagh was also pessimistically predicting a whitewash to talkSPORT (via the Telegraph).

This Australia team is not unravelling like that Robbie Deans iteration. In November they were runners-up in the World Cup to the greatest rugby team ever.

Australia will galvanise

Australian Super Rugby sides, admittedly, are struggling in 2016. Aside from the Melbourne Rebels, the other four teams have been abject.

As Paul Cully of the Sydney Morning Herald highlighted, statistically, this is the worst set of performances from Australian teams in Super Rugby since 2011. And according to ex-Australia skipper Andrew Slack, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald's Phil Lutton: "I can't see an obvious answer."

But—and here's the rub; Slack went on to add that wasn't unduly concerned about the Wallabies for the June series: "There are very few sports people that are on-form season after season after season with hardly a gap. There will be a number of Wallabies that will work their way into better form."

Australia will galvanise. Lest we forget, Michael Cheika turned the Wallabies around in one year from the end of 2014 to 2015. He can do so again. Indeed, Cheika is confident enough that, according to Sky Sports, he is considering resting European-based stars such Drew Mitchell, Matt Giteau, Sekope Kepu, Will Genia and Adam Ashley-Cooper to keep them fresh for the Rugby Championship.

England could win, but it would be 2-1

England are improving, no doubt, and in Eddie Jones they have a coach who could mastermind a series win against Australia, but if they do take the spoils, it will be after a hard-fought 2-1 triumph.

The first test is always crucial for any Northern Hemisphere team going south as theoretically it gives the opportunity to catch their hosts, in this case a Wallaby team who have not played since the 2015 Rugby World Cup final on October 31, cold.

And although England play a warm-up fixture against Wales on May 29, their preparations for the June 11 opener are far from ideal. The Premiership final takes place on May 28, so the Wales game is more of an audition than something to plan with, and Jones will only have a full squad together to train for one week ahead of that first encounter with Australia.

If England arrive in Australia relatively injury-free then they might beat the Wallabies. But it would be 2-1. A 3-0 whitewash is out of the question.

England coach Eddie Jones will take 32 players on the summer tour to Australia, and Chris Ashton should be one of them. The question over whether to recall Ashton or pick Wasps flyer Christian Wade is agonisingly difficult, but here I make a pragmatic case for the controversial Saracen.

I expect Jones to take five back-three players down under, and with Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell, Mike Brown and Alex Goode inked-in, there is only space for one specialist winger—a shootout between Ashton and Christian Wade.

The case for Wade

Christian Wade, should anyone need reminding, is simply electric. His two breaks in the European Champions Cup semi-final, the first of which led to Dan Robson’s try, were breathtaking. He links well with the rest of the back three, and his understanding of the game is increasing with experience. He has wonder-try potential.

The Guardian’s Robert Kitson makes the case convincingly:

In some countries there is little doubt Wade would already be a Test fixture. Imagine him on the wing for, say, Scotland or France? Yes, there would be those who would advocate sending a couple of hard-nut enforcers down his flank but that never seemed to bother Shane Williams unduly. Not since the mercurial Shane has British and Irish rugby had a more jet-heeled finisher.

Wade’s defence is no worse than Ashton’s, either, but it’s his ability to take the high ball (he is only 5'8"  after all) that worries me. Should Wade be selected, a glaring mismatch with Wallaby full-back Israel Folau on a cross-field kick would surely beckon (remember Lote Tuqiri on Jason Robinson in the 2003 World Cup final). The counter-case for the slender speedster is Robinson's fine finish in the same match.

The case for Ashton

Chris Ashton is a big-match player. As per the Guardian, Ashton has crossed the whitewash 31 times in 48 European appearances. For England, he has 19 in 39, per ESPN Scrum. Ashton is more of a modern winger than Wade. He has a good all-round kicking game, including an excellent grubber and chase.

Ashton should go to Australia because I anticipate Owen Farrell starting at fly-half for England with Manu Tuilagi playing at inside centre. From playing together at Saracens, Ashton has a good understanding with the No. 10, meaning his trademark support lines are even more effective because he can read what Farrell is planning.

Farrell himself is developing much more of an offensive game this season, giving nice reverse passes and putting teammates into space. England could profit from such Farrell-Ashton combinations.

Eddie Jones has showed himself to trust and bring the best out of England’s pricklier players. He made Dylan Hartley captain, and Owen Farrell a deputy. In terms of discipline, Hartley was exemplary during the Six Nations. Ashton himself missed the tournament because of a lengthy ban, but the England coach should be backed to curb Ashton’s penchant for stupidity.

After Ashton was involved in the aftermath of the incident that saw England rival Anthony Watson of Bath red-carded for an aerial challenge on Alex Goode, Jones was quick to admonish the winger, as per the Daily Mail: “I didn’t like what Ashton did. I thought it was unsportsmanlike, and that is something he needs to get out of his game.” I think Jones commands enough respect for Ashton to get the message.

So Ashton gets the recall, only just, and for pragmatic reasons. Should George Ford be in better form by the autumn internationals and be installed as the first-choice fly-half, then it would be very hard to ignore Wade. But for now, the team setup calls for Ashton.

Ashton, though, is not in a strong enough position to oust the incumbent England wings, Nowell and Watson, from the starting lineup; they offer a more rounded skill set and have been consistently excellent this term. But although the rugby romantic in me is longing for Wade to be picked for England, Eddie Jones should instead take Ashton to Australia.

Christian Wade hit the headlines last weekend with a six-try performance against Worcester that rocketed the Wasps man to second in this season's leading try-scorer table in the Aviva Premiership.

The 24-year-old is enjoying life as part of a resurgent Wasps, who have reached the last four of Europe's premier club competition for the first time since 2007, and they are second in their domestic competition and on course for a play-off berth.

It usually follows that players in a successful side start to pique the interest of the national selectors, and Wasps have plenty of Englishmen Eddie Jones can call upon. Indeed, James Haskell, Joe Launchbury and Elliot Daly were all part of the Red Rose's Grand Slam squad.

But Wade was overlooked. The former RGS High Wycombe pupil has not had much luck when it comes to England honours.

He was due to play in the 2013 autumn internationals before a hamstring injury intervened, then he was ruled out for six months that December with a foot problem, per the Telegraph.

Other players took their chances in his absence, and in 2015 he was overlooked by Stuart Lancaster, not even making the original 50-man pre-World Cup party. Later that year, he was struck down with another foot injury that sidelined him for part of this season.

Now he is clearly fit and currently firing on all cylinders. But rather than take the chance to demand his form merits selection for England's tour of Australia, Wade has been talking up his prospects of heading to Rio to play in the Olympic Sevens tournament, per the Guardian:

An Olympic medal is one of the highest honours for anyone. You would be representing Great Britain and a medal would just be massive, something you can hold on to and be proud of. There will be millions of viewers watching ... it is probably the ultimate stage.

Except it's not, is it?

How many players have genuinely used Sevens as a springboard to success in the 15-man game? Sevens, with its own world series and increased sponsorship revenues and TV coverage, has been attracting players who specialise in the short form of the game.

But in the case of England, these are players without much chance of full 15-a-side recognition.

Ben Gollings, Chris Cracknell, Simon Amor—to name three—carved out excellent Sevens careers, but no one suggested their performances in that version of the game would somehow catapult them into the full England team.

And that's why Wade's reported attraction to this year's Olympic competition feels like a backward step, almost the easy route to international recognition—which it certainly is not when you consider how fit those players have to be—almost a signal of resignation that his 15s chances are too slim to pursue with any great vigour.

Surely a 24-year old in his sort of form should be using interviews like that to push claims for a place on the plane to Australia, where he can work each day under the eyes of Jones and his coaching staff to prove himself worthy of a shot.

Eddie Jones is clearly watching his men, but he will also be listening. Does Wade's soundbite paint him as a young man desperate to break into a winning England team?

Has Wade begun to believe the opinions formed about him in the media? Namely that, as an attacker, he is harder to handle than a live grenade, but his defending leaves room for improvement. He hinted at these weaknesses back in 2014 in the piece in the Mirror:

I can't just rely on scoring tries. Our main job as wingers is to finish off tries and also get over the gainline and that is something I've always done. But I also have to have the right defensive mindset: to be good at defending at the wide breakdowns, the high balls and the kick-chase. I have to keep working on my strengths as well as on my weaknesses.

What we should be hearing from him is that yes, he is small, and perhaps a big brute or two might batter him now and then, but there ain't no one who can run and dance and jink like he can. Not since Shane Williams hung up his boots. How many pundits picked on the Welshman for the odd defensive lapse?

Again in the Guardian, Rob Kitson, who would have no problem if Wade were to go to Rio, bemoans the culture of safety first that has perhaps played a part in the fact Wade has just the one full cap to his name:

Top-class rugby players also need to defend. But do people sit down, 25 years on, and marvel at the tackling of David Campese or Jonathan Davies? How come Nehe Milner-Scudder was among the stars of the last World Cup? As with Wade, the New Zealander is no giant but possesses the pace and ability to make defenders look silly in alternative ways.

There has so far been no call to Wade for the Olympic GB squad, but if there were one, he should turn it down. He has a Premiership title and European Cup to help his club side to win, and what he should be focused on is slaughtering defenders in front of him in those key games coming up to force Eddie Jones to pick him.

Running around in the Sevens arena will teach us nothing about Christian Wade, and it will teach him nothing about becoming a 15-a-side international wing.

A few weeks in Australia will do both.

England’s biggest disappointment so far in the 2016 RBS Six Nations has been their discipline. Sound familiar?

Eddie Jones' team were much the better side against Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday, and it was only England’s indiscipline that brought the visitors back into the game.

Speaking after the match, England captain Dylan Hartley told the BBC: “I'm sure there's plenty to work on, discipline being top of the list.” He was right.

England, who dominated throughout, had two men sent to the sin-bin, which begs the question how many they might lose to the yellow cards when they are put under sustained pressure by top-class opposition with their best players fit.

The first, James Haskell’s late and high tackle on Conor Murray (see video above), was a reckless cheap shot that cost England an almost immediate Irish try and swung the game in Ireland’s favour to lead 10-6. In so offending, the Wasps man became the most sin-binned player in the history of the Six Nations, with four yellows.

Haskell clearly didn’t learn from his similar experience in 2013 against the same opposition, when he feared his card would cost England the match.

Danny Care’s yellow for killing the ball as Ireland looked odds-on to score was more understandable (see video below). The English defence was ragged, and sometimes the coach will not be too disappointed. No mention will be made here of the Harlequins man's daft yellow card against Ireland under Martin Johnson.

Elsewhere, Owen Farrell has been a notorious disciplinary offender in recent seasons, and he is becoming far more of a liability than Hartley, despite his captain’s well-publicised misdemeanours.

Farrell was guilty of two costly penalty infringements in the first half when England were deep in Irish territory. First, after a fine Anthony Watson aerial claim from George Ford’s pinpoint kick, Farrell’s sealing off at the ruck cost England possession and the field position gained by the move.

Discipline is not just avoiding late tackles and cheap shots, it's also about recognising the futility of offending and Farrell hasn’t learned that yet.

Later in the first half, a Farrell neck roll on Keith Earls let Ireland off the hook when their under-fire lineout was about to be tested five metres from their try line. Cheap-shot indiscipline at the ruck is being penalised more and more since the arrival of the in-play television match official (TMO) and rarely goes unnoticed either during the game or after it.

It’s senseless, and Farrell and England must kick the habit. On another day, he might have seen yellow.

Farrell, to take the most prominent example, has prior form here. With England threatening an unlikely comeback in the 2015 Rugby World Cup against Australia, all hopes were extinguished by his yellow card for taking out Matt Giteau without the ball with the score at 13-20 (see video above). He must curb his penchant for rugby felony.

Aside from yellow cards and Farrell, another worrying trend is that ex-captain Chris Robshaw is quietly becoming a serial offender at the ruck and maul.

Whether losing the leadership has impacted on Robshaw’s sense of impunity, England can scarcely afford to have both flankers walking a disciplinary tightrope. He too could have been sin-binned for being offside at an Irish driving maul 10 metres from the England line.

All this though comes after an internal statement from head coach Jones about improving discipline, as recorded by the Daily Mail in a feature on winger (and recent cherub) Jack Nowell. In it, the Exeter Chiefs man noted: “Our discipline hasn't been great and we know that as a squad that that needs to get a lot better.”

“We’ve talked a lot about discipline, and breakdown penalties, and we gave some dumb ones away which kept them in the game.” Thus spoke Stuart Lancaster, then England head coach, after the 2015 Rugby World Cup defeat to Wales, per Rugby World.

In the discipline department, despite the arrival of Jones, nothing has changed.

Ireland's hopes of a third successive Six Nations championship win may be all but shattered after a draw and a loss in their opening two matches, but they'll be desperate to earn their first victory of the 2016 campaign when they face England at Twickenham on Saturday.

As for Eddie Jones' side, after two wins from two, they'll be looking to further consolidate their position at the top of the standings and maintain hopes of not only winning the competition for the first time since 2011 but also seeing out the Grand Slam.

The match is shaping up to be a typically fiery contest between the two sides, so it's not to be missed. To that end, here are the viewing details you need to catch the action, followed by a closer look at the match:

Date: Saturday, February 27

Time: 4:50 p.m. GMT

TV Info: ITV

Live Stream: ITV Player

Preview

Fitness will play a large part in determining Joe Schmidt's Ireland squad to face England, with the return of Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Keith Earls and Simon Zebo counterbalanced by tournament-ending injuries suffered by Dave Kearney, Sean O'Brien and Mike McCarthy in the defeat to France, per Tom Cary of the Telegraph.

Per Cary, Ireland's Conor Murray has admitted his team-mates have a "fear factor" about playing England at Twickenham, having not won there since 2010. He said:

England away, especially, is a huge task; there is a fear factor among players about going there. I have never won there and there are a lot of players in the squad who have never won there, but we have come close.

[...]

If you take your eye off the ball, if you go over to England and you’re not prepared they could really give you a hammering. So we’re really focused on going over and performing. That’s not a line we’re told to say, it is actually that tough to go over there and perform. 

Further compounding matters is Ireland's difficult start to their 2016 campaign, after being held to a 16-16 draw at home to Wales before slipping to a 10-9 defeat in Paris.

As Opta Jonny revealed, the Irish have twice taken a half-time lead but on both occasions lacked the resilience needed to hold on:

Meanwhile, England have played two of their three away matches and won both, and they come into this game on the back of an impressive performance against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico, where they won 40-9.

Alex Spink of the Daily Mirror ran the rule over England in Rome:

Indeed, they are the only nation not to concede a try thus far, and their convincing attacking display against Italy means their seven tries scored is comfortably the best tally of any side.

Per BBC Sport, Elliot Daly has been included in England's squad and could make his debut for Jones' side. Team-mate Mike Brown is excited by the inclusion of the 23-year-old:

"He's come in full of energy, he's a great lad on and off the field. He's been a brilliant player in the Premiership, so it will be interesting to see how he makes the next step up," he told Chris Jones of BBC Sport.

Should Ireland be stifled by the fear factor Murray alluded to, the freedom and dynamism Daly might bring, even off the bench, could make a real difference for the hosts.

If the visitors are to earn their first win of the campaign, they'll need to not only put in a much stronger performance than they have previously but also display the mental fortitude they've lacked. If not, they could find themselves on the receiving end of a comprehensive beating.

England fans, ex-players and journalists have bemoaned England’s failure to win turnovers at the breakdown since the retirement of Neil Back in 2003.

Back, standing at just 5'10", was the last high-quality scavenging openside to wear the Red Rose. But, despite all the obituaries of England’s ability to fashion turnovers, it has been the team's surprise package so far in the 2016 RBS Six Nations.

England? Excelling at the breakdown, winning turnovers? Without a proper fetcher and having to make do with two blindsides in the back row? It sounds counterintuitive, and all the more so if one notes captain Dylan Hartley’s post-match comments from Rome, where England triumphed 9-40.

Hartley’s review was hardly complimentary of England’s breakdown play, as recorded by the Daily Telegraph: “We've got higher standards. At the breakdown we were off the money. We have to tighten up.”

Hartley, though, was being harsh on his charges. England’s starting back row might have misfired at the breakdown, but as a whole team, the performance against Italy at the ruck was one of the best in recent memory. In fact, according to the RBS 6 Nations Matchcentre, they recorded an astonishing 17 turnovers.

So far in this year's Six Nations, the next-best turnover display was from the French, with eight against Ireland.

Not all of these England steals were at the breakdown, but nonetheless, it’s a very encouraging statistic.

England’s tries alone suggest a vast improvement in these areas. George Ford’s first-half try came from a superb clear-out inside the Italian 22-metre line won thanks to good rucking from Mike Brown and George Kruis’ athletic claim (see video above).

Similarly, Jonathan Joseph’s third score was made possible by a turnover following a powerful hit by the rapidly improving Kruis.

In fact, the breakdown was excellent in the second half, either mirroring or causing the sharp rise in England’s performance, as a 9-11 half-time lead was extended by 29 points.

The introduction of Maro Itoje—really a second row but operating from No. 6—was encouraging. Writing in the Guardian, Robert Kitson said: “[The] young Saracen did enough at the breakdown alone in the last half-hour to justify his promotion.”

Turnovers were won all over the field and from unusual places. Lightweight wing Anthony Watson even stole the ball from the centre Gonzalo Garcia.

After the win against Scotland, England head coach Eddie Jones highlighted to Sky Sports that the breakdown was one of the two areas his side would focus on most leading up to Italy, and he received a positive response.

England, though, were not undone at Murrayfield in this area, despite the Scots fielding two specialist fetchers in John Barclay and John Hardie. The stats show that England won the turnover count seven to four. Jones, however, requires more.

Jones has enlisted the help of former Australia flanker George Smith, winner of 111 caps in the back row, as an informal breakdown adviser, and given England’s previous ineptitude at the ruck, it is tempting to see the coach and the veteran Wasps player as part of this mini-renaissance.

England, moreover, still have a lot of work to do to become a fiercely competitive side in the contact area. While it is great to see back-three players and tight forwards turning over ball, much more is expected from the back row. If Billy Vunipola plays at No. 8 and is the premier ball-carrier, the onus must be on the flankers to scavenge.

England must demand more from Chris Robshaw and James Haskell on the floor, but nonetheless, their breakdown play—from being ineffectual at the World Cup and for aeons before that—has been the team’s surprise package thus far in the Six Nations.