England: Farrell denies O'Connor criticism

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/story/160766.html

"

Owen Farrell
has rejected the claims of Leicester head coach Matt O'Connor
suggesting England are negative and play each game "trying not to lose".



O'Connor's comment formed part of a stinging attack
on the way Leicester's out-of-favour half-backs Toby Flood and Ben
Youngs have been treated by England's interim coach Stuart Lancaster.
The Australian believes the interim management team are not interested
in creative players, but Farrell insists England's new-look side proved
against World Cup semi-finalists Wales that they are prepared to take on
the best in the world.



"He is entitled to his own opinion. We have our own views. We are
excited about the way we are playing at the minute," Farrell said. "The
way we played against Wales was a massive step in the right direction
for us and we all thought that.



"It was still disappointing to lose a game when we created quite a few
chances but we are massively excited about the way we are going and I
hope we can build on that.



"I don't see how else you go into a rugby game (but trying to win it). I
don't think I have ever had a mindset to just avoid defeat otherwise
you don't play how you want to do. The way we played the game against
Wales the other week proved that."



England struggled to showcase Lancaster's attacking gameplan as they
battled to away wins against Scotland and Italy, with Hodgson scoring a
charge-down try in each game. But with Farrell impressive at fly-half,
England turned in a more encouraging offensive performance in their
19-12 defeat to Wales two weekends ago.



Lee Dickson, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Morgan all came into the starting XV
and injected a pace and tempo into England's attacking game that had
been missing.



"We have got brilliant players all over the field and we are using them
right at the minute, we just need to finish our chances," Farrell said.
"We are going in the right direction. It is coming.



"There is a structure in place but it is a structure which allows you to
be yourself and play the way you play. We have got massive belief in
what we are trying to do. Every game we have got better as a team."

Theres quite a few statements in there that I'm not sure I agree with!!!

Luckily Farrel did not listen to Galthié point of view on the English "renaissance" :

http://www.scottishsundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/306755/This-is-England-s-worst-side-ever-

"We are excited about the way we are playing at the minute"

Is the one that is worrying me...

England's current style is only marginally more enticing than a lovely hot bath, a bottle of gin and a toxic dose of tranquilisers.

Portnoy wrote:England's current style is only marginally more enticing than a lovely hot bath, a bottle of gin and a toxic dose of tranquilisers.

If you put a nicely filled out 22 year old female of questionable values into the bath with me, the booze, and the dope, then I don't care about England rugby any more (for at least an afternoon, baby).

Actually, you can have the dope, I will keep the girl, the gin and the bath.

I don't like gin. I like tea.

Well...i dont care..they'll be eating their words when we go out and smash the French to kingdom come....

doctor_grey wrote:

Portnoy wrote:England's current style is only marginally more enticing than a lovely hot bath, a bottle of gin and a toxic dose of tranquilisers.

If you put a nicely filled out 22 year old female of questionable values into the bath with me, the booze, and the dope, then I don't care about England rugby any more (for at least an afternoon, baby).

Actually, you can have the dope, I will keep the girl, the gin and the bath.

'Kinnora Doc,

I never mentioned any nicely filled out 22 year old female of questionable values in my equation.

You can have the bath, the gin and the tranx.

Follow me my lovely...

You both can share the hot bath and the gin if I can just have the dope and a good five minutes alone with the babe

You can take or leave England, honestly I don't mind in the slightest

I don't think you can call england's play negative. It just isn't clicking.

I don't think you can call England's play negative. It just isn't clicking.

I'll second that. The way I've read our game this 6Ns is that vs Scotland there was no sign of an attacking game at all; vs Italy there were a few signs but they didn't work; and vs Wales - well how close can you get and not score? So it has imo visibly improved over the three games.

Also, that is the first three games played together by England's least experienced squad since heaven knows when. The boys have done pretty good.

Cowshot wrote: and vs Wales - well how close can you get and not score? So it has imo visibly improved over the three games.

Yeah unfortunatly they have dumped the fly half and kept the scrum half on the bench who were responsible for creating that opportunity. Thast what OConnors specificaly talking about.

England have a scrum half whos sole task is to pass the ball to the 10 or kick it if he isnt there. They have a 10 who is primarily conservative in his appraoch, stands deeps and looks to kick tacticaly or put a simple pass to the centers to take to contact. He has no real running game. The same with the bench option, a better passer but worse tackler. The 12 is largely a direct running contact player, also a decent kicker. The 13 has a bit more flair but because of the way England have played usually finds himself operating in tracffic and taking the crash option. Whilst all are decent enough players its leaving England very limited and predicatble. They have no subtlkety, little ambition, and little ability to create space for the back 3 through anything other than individual brilliance or opposition errors.
The lack of organisation is forgivebale and understandable at this point, the coaches havent had the side together very long. It is a justification though of the consistent selection argument, wholesale dumpings of teams abnd chaopping and changing make it harder to coach them. We can say that Lancaster has been relatively lucky so far with injuries in this regard, compare this to the number of withdrawls Gatlands had to deal with over the course of the 6 nations ...his younger side still looks much more organissed.
Poor execution of skills isnt something you can directly lay at the coaches doorsptep. Ashton is woefully out of sorts at the moment and Youngs has been flakey. That has no bearing on the approach England are taking. On the whole teh players have done fine in what they ahve been asked to do, passes have for the most part been accurate, kicking good, and tackling spot on. The running of Barrit and Tuilagi has solid. The lack of penertartion from Englads backs in set play is not down to poor execution, its a lack of subtlely ambition and organsiation.

How often have Englands back 3 been given the ball in space by their own side? Almost all their running has come from returning of opposition kicks, some good and some bad ( strettle running into traffic and getting turned over for example)

England have been building the blocks slowly, thats fine. But the signals are that Lancaster far from the approach many expected sees the 9 10 as nothing more than places to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible form, and that its the 12 13s job to create space by ruinning ionto the nearest defender rather than exploiting gaps. The wingers role is primarily as a kick returner and last ditch tackler, the idea of passing to them or them coming infield to join the line is utterly alien to this side.
Its all a bit Andy Robinson.

Id call it negative. They are looking to contain sides and not take risks, play a simple game and win on kicks. Thers no real spark, and the selection of Hodgson over Flood is a signal Lancatser has no immediate plans to change that.

Oconnor is hardly alone in having made this observation about England.

But in Lancasters defence England have won big games in the past with this kind of setup and gameplan.

good points, but everyone has to start somewhere and I'm one of these optimists that think that England are nailing the basics first.

Tackling has been brilliant across the board with good technique.

they are still building on the scrum and the lineout has improved, as has the quick ball. The next logical step is to work out how to break down sides and get players into space past the gain line... something which we KNOW that these players have the ability to do.

It'll come.

for now so long as they keep the basics going well (they could pass a little lower and stand a little flatter vs rush defence).

oh and the most important thing is already nailed that most international sides would give their eyeteeth for, a calm, good percentage kicker.