BRIAN ASHTON has time and again dismissed the relevance of England’s two South African Tests to the impending World Cup, and on this damning evidence the head coach had better hope he is right.
No one needs reminding that the England team who conceded records in margin, points and tries to the Springboks, as well as the third-worst defeat in 136 years of English Test rugby, bore no resemblance to the one he will send out against the Boks in Paris in September.
This is a convenient excuse to set aside what happened in the Free State as something that had to be endured because deluded administrators decreed it – which is also true. Even the hope that someone might emerge to press a World Cup claim is faint to the point of disappearing.
“It was an interesting exercise that has given me a clearer picture in my mind about some of the players,” said Ashton. Meaning that as soon as he sits down next month to work out his preliminary World Cup squad, he can swiftly forget about most of those who are here.
His motley crew of largely third and fourth choices had actually performed a remarkable feat in keeping South Africa tryless for the first and third quarters. But let us put that in context: The second and fourth yielded seven between them.
So Ashton, discounting for now the Webb Ellis Cup defence, is in damage-limitation mode for the second Test in Pretoria this Saturday – and if that is an expression he does not recognise, everyone else surely does.
“It’s not up to me to pull this round,” he said. “It’s all of us. I have talked to them about this, we have to stand together. We go into the game as positive as we can be and I am hoping we can work towards a much more competitive display.”
If Ashton really believes this can be turned round in a week, even if the gastric bug sweeping the squad has dissipated, he is less canny than we thought. But, in fact, he is a hard-edged realist and knows the truth.
Being competitive for part of the game, as England were here, is meaningless if you are uncompetitive for the rest – as England also were. And even if England are better in Pretoria, the Springboks will be better still.
“I told the players there are two ways this can go,” added Ashton. “You can sulk all week or say, ‘Right, we’re going to get ourselves together, get ourselves sorted out’. I expect them to dig in and come out fighting.”
Nick Easter, Mark Regan and Andy Gomarsall were among those whose gung-ho post-match enthusiasm backed Ashton’s optimism. But how can they envisage anything as presumptuous as victory against a South African side at virtual full strength?
Not, for certain, when more than 40 players were left behind and even the ones in South Africa have been so debilitated by illness and injury. On match morning, Andy Farrell and Peter Richards had been the latest, predictable withdrawals.
“We have been realistic all the way through this trip,” said Ashton. “Anything can happen in 80 minutes of rugby. To win the second Test is a possibility. I wouldn’t yet describe it as a realistic possibility.”
He can scarcely avoid speaking along such lines. But there is nothing he can do about the physical disparity between his players and South Africa’s, nor about the huge added value his counterpart Jake White has on his bench compared with Ashton.
But one thing the England coach may be able to influence is his players’ reckless inability to retain their own hard-won ball. Each of the first five Springbok tries originated from English possession.
Chris Jones’s loose lineout tap, Jones’s intercept pass, Stuart Turner’s and then Pat Sanderson’s fumbles and finally Toby Flood’s loose kick led Ashwin Willemse, Bryan Habana, Jean de Villiers, Schalk Burger and Francois Steyn to the England line.
James Simpson-Daniel’s try, from a rare attacking scrum when England were already 27 points behind, was the most purely creative of the match as the ball passed through Gomarsall, Flood, Jonny Wilkinson and Mathew Tait to the scorer.
You can see how one-sided it really was when a scoreline of 30-10 comes as a relief. And by the end, when Habana scored his second and CJ van der Linde completed the record-breaking misery, England were beyond the point of exhaustion.
After that, England’s appearance at Loftus Versfeld is more a threat than an opportunity, in that there were aspects of their play here – notably the set-piece and the first-up tackling – it will be hard going on impossible to improve.
That leaves Ashton where Clive Woodward was on the 1998 tour from hell, definitely not the 2002 tour when England famously won in New Zealand and Australia as a prelude to the 2003 World Cup. On that basis, they could have a good shot at the hallowed silverware – in 2011 not 2007.
SOUTH AFRICA 58 ENGLAND 10
South Africa – Tries: Habana (2), Willemse, De Villiers, Burger, Steyn, Van der Linde. Cons: Montgomery (7). Pens: Montgomery (3). England – Try: Simpson-Daniel. Con: Wilkinson. Pen: Wilkinson.
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