David Campese hits out at ‘boring’ England’s ‘lack of ambition’ and calls for Steve Borthwick to let Marcus Smith ‘run the show’
A split image of Marcus Smith, David Campese and England head coach Steve Borthwick.
With England about to embark on an Autumn Nations Series that includes Tests against traditionally the three giants of the Southern Hemisphere rugby, we caught up with regular Planet Rugby columnist David Campese who believes this season is absolutely pivotal for Steve Borthwick and his charges.
Honesty
“From where I’m sitting England need to start being fully honest about where they are and their recent shortcomings,” Campese said.
“Sure, they got a Bronze in the World Cup, but let’s be honest, they didn’t meet a top-tier side until their penultimate game against South Africa in the semi-final, so I don’t read too much into that campaign.
“The simple truth is that England have won literally one match against top four or five opposition – against Ireland last season. They’ve gotten close to France, New Zealand and the Boks in that semi, but on each occasion, they simply haven’t had the wherewithal to find the ability to deliver that killer blow,” explained the Wallaby great.
“Take it from me – when you consistently fail to close those games off, nerves and self-doubt seep into the squad. You lack the ability to think clearly under the pressure of the last 20 minutes and the sheer weight of expectation turns to devastating disappointment as you once again fall agonisingly short.
“You can talk up a narrow loss as much as you want but they make no odds whatsoever. Winning is all that you’re remembered for as a Test player and, frankly, England currently are consistently losing games that they have a chance to win. We saw it in Lyon, Auckland and Dunedin in three of their last four Tests – with the New Zealand games golden opportunities for famous wins that they didn’t grasp.”
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Smith the key
“For me, England are too intent on building a defence-based team. They’re obsessed with being hard to beat rather than easy to lose to and that’s largely down to the lack of ambition in selection,” he continued.
“As a simple example, when you look at the reasons that Henry Slade, a man who’s played almost 70 Tests and delivered very little in those matches, has been fast-tracked back, the narrative is about him leading the blitz defence. There’s no consideration of his woeful pass completion and lack of pace to break around good defences.
“England have traditionally played most of their rugby with two playmakers – 10 and 12. Now, for availability reasons they don’t have the options there they once had, so we’re seeing the best 13 in the Premiership shuffled across to 12 to play an unnatural game and then ignoring young attacking talent like Lennox Anyanwu or Luke Northmore because they’re obsessed with a defensive outside centre. I simply don’t get it,” Campese exclaimed.
Empowerment
“England were as boring as batshit in the World Cup and Six Nations.
“You need unpredictability, creativity and the ability to be opportunistic in elite Test rugby – the qualities we see regularly from the likes of France, New Zealand and even South Africa over the last 12 months. The only way they’ll achieve this is by giving Marcus Smith the keys at 10, telling him he’s in for the duration of the season and to get out there and create chaos.
“To let Smith run the show, he needs empowerment and the best players around him to deliver an unpredictable running game of rugby. England have that issue at 12 and 13, and can see great logic in bringing Alex Lozowski, a man who can offer that second playmaker set of eyes, into inside centre to free up the world-class Ollie Lawrence to be the best version of himself, in his favoured position.
“We know England will kick a lot, especially if Ben Spencer plays at nine. So having Tommy Freeman, a superb athlete in the air, down the wing helps with a target for reclaiming the high ball. If that happens then phase rugby off nine and ten from broken field situations becomes a real option.”
Filling the gaps
“England are not helping themselves with the blanket ban on French-based players,” Campese observed.
“You could pick another XV from the guys over there with some world-class players plying their trade in France. Jack Willis, Henry Arundell, Joe Marchant, David Ribbans, Lewis Ludlam…the list goes on. These guys are all Test-proven performers and it’s ridiculous that in order to protect the viability of the Premiership, England are self-inflicting a real wound by ignoring these talents.
“Courtney Lawes is also now retired and in France. England are really in a conundrum in how to fill his huge presence at six. The best Test sides have some seriously big back-rows these days – the likes of Pieter-Steph du Toit, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera, Charles Ollivon and even Ireland with Ryan Baird and Tadhg Beirne both key options. The blueprint is bigger locks in the row and lineout athletes in the back-row and Lawes is virtually irreplaceable in that regard, especially now the one guy that could have done that, Ollie Chessum, is injured,” explained Campese.
“I cannot for the life of me understand why the outstanding candidate to fill this role, Tom Willis, has again been omitted despite his stellar form for Saracens. He’s got rugby smarts, he’s a lineout option and he gets through contact like few others. Sure, England have Chandler Cunningham-South but he’s currently a 50-minute Test player and one injury to him unbalances the whole of England’s back-row potential.”
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The final analysis
“However, for me it’s that bigger picture – closing out the tight game against world-class teams – that needs to be addressed. England should be confident of two from four this November as they face a shambolic Wallabies and an average Japanese team. But that shows us nothing about progress.
“Unless they are able to take out one of New Zealand or South Africa and show result-based progress rather than excuse-based progress then I fear for their prospects of developing into the side they should be with all their resources.
“It’s time for England to mirror the style and excitement of the Premiership and that relies upon ambition, unpredictability and pace, something a long way removed from what we’ve seen from Steve Borthwick so far.
“Can they do it? I think so but it’ll take bravery in selection and tactics to take this team up a level from the stodge of 2023/24 into a new dawn for the next Rugby World Cup cycle.”
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