Former England rugby union captain Dylan Hartley has delivered a thorough assessment on the mood within Steve Borthwick’s camp, after England have suffered back-to-back defeats in the autumn internationals. England have the tall order of a battle with the Springboks tonight, as they look to turn around their form in the Autumn Nations Series.
Hartley, who captained England to a Grand Slam under Eddie Jones, dismissed any leadership concerns within the squad and explained that the current team were simply missing a collective focus, intensity and understanding in key moments, which has cost them in matches against New Zealand and Australia. Speaking to Prime Casio, Hartley expressed how England need to look to their leaders for guidance, who need to rise in the crucial moments.
“I think they’re lacking a collective focus and intensity and understanding. Their intensity and focus for both games (New Zealand and Australia) for 60-70 minutes of both games has been really high, and they played to a good standard, but then England find themselves in tight one and two-point games in the last minute and that shouldn’t be happening.
They should be winning games earlier. In both matches, the final few minutes we’re uncontrolled. When you’re in that situation when you need to see thing out and get it over the line, you need that experience and collective focus to carry you through.
“Unfortunately, last week against Australia was a classic example where England showed great character with Maro’s try but then, and it’s every coach’s bugbear, they lose the next kick off, and that’s where that collective focus needs to be 110%. So no, I don’t think they lack leadership. I think they lack a collective focus intensity and understanding in those key moments.”
On the challenge of the world champions, Hartley explained that England will be confident that they can get a result and admitted that they’ll be hurting after the two defeats. He backed the selection of Sam Underhill, who enters the fray for his first taste of Autumn Series action. The Bath back row is set to start on the openside flank, and takes up the mantle in the injury enforced absence of Tom Curry.
“The direct replacement for a Tom Curry would easily be a Ben Curry because it’s easy for everyone. But, for me, I would put in Sam Underhill, who is a player with a good head on his shoulders and is a good squad man. He’s got good experience as well when you look at the wider group.
“This is quite a young team in many ways, and I think in terms of experience, Sam’s a fantastic player. In terms of his physical capabilities, he’s for me probably the best or one of the best in the world at what he does in terms of his gain-line presence, in terms of defensively, and he’s got some in the tank as well equally in attack. I’d love to see Sam Underhill come back into the fold.”
There is no down-playing the challenge that England face tonight, with Hartley likening the Springboks to that of the back-to-back World Cup winning All Blacks, who dominated the Test match stage from 2011 to 2015. The Springboks captain Siya Kolisi is the only man on earth aside from Richie McCaw, who can claim the honour of lifting the Web Ellis trophy on two consecutive occassions.
“The current South African team, back-to-back World Cup winners, much like the All Blacks. There’s one difference between this South Africa team and the All Blacks back-to-back World Cup winners. The All Blacks seem to be far more dominant; I don’t know if the stats prove that, but it felt that they were unplayable in many instances in that period of back-to-backs World Cup wins.
“Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, that gang of guys, it seemed in between the World Cups they were so dominant, whereas I feel South Africa, and this might just be my perception, they dominated the World Cup, they turn up, they do the business, but in between they’re probably not as convincing as the All Blacks. That’s just my opinion.”
“What will England be saying in camp? They’ll be saying, ‘Here’s the results, and here’s the performances.’ I think the performances have been largely good. The intensity levels have been outstanding in terms of international rugby. They’ve been in and around two good results, two good performances.
“I think they understand that this game is won and lost in a few moments. There’ll be belief in what they’re doing, and I think the carrot for them, or the light in this instance, is that they are two down, but if they win this, it proves that they have got the quality and the maturity to close out these games because they’ll be hurting after the two losses.”
