Rugby is a beautiful game, and like the gladiator battles in ancient Rome, it desperately needs differing styles of play to keep it interesting. Right now, England needs just that. Here’s why and how.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, England’s rugby style was widely feared. We always fielded a pack of ferocious and powerful forwards that could drive scrum after scrum backward off the ball, tuck the ball “up the jersey,” and drive straight up the middle of the field, pushing weaker packs aside en route to the try line. The pick-and-go from the back of the ruck was a lethal tool—not just from five meters out but also on the twenty-two, even from the halfway line—pushing defences backward, drawing defenders in, and creating gaps.
Unfortunately, those days are long gone. In our relentless push to become more like teams such as the All Blacks and France, we have lost our identity and, worse, our ability to win big games.
We need to get back to playing like England used to. We have amazingly skillful backs like Marcus Smith, Ollie Lawrence, and Tommy Freeman, who can and will exploit the gaps in defense that become inevitable with the sort of front-foot ball created by our forwards doing their job.
Back in England’s golden era, games against the likes of South Africa were anticipated as huge arm wrestles between big, powerful, and strong teams. Faster-flowing rugby with fancy offloads was left to New Zealand and Australia. We had the steamrollers, and we weren’t afraid to use them. This technique works for the current South Africa team and their infamous “Bomb Squad.” They wear teams down using their forwards’ strength, creating gaps for their backs to exploit, and then bring on a whole new pack to run amok through the tenderized opposition.
England’s set-piece needs to improve. We need specific coaching at the club level to enhance the standards of our scrummaging and our lineouts, and we need to choose larger packs. We have some great forwards, but all too often, we are playing loose forwards in lock positions. Our locks need to be huge powerhouses, shoring up the scrum and ensuring we can win our ball and challenge in defensive lineouts consistently. We want teams to fear a knock-on or kicking for touch; we want them to narrow their game, forcing errors and playing a style that suits us.
England needs to build its Bomb Squad and play to its strengths. Having every team play like New Zealand isn’t good for the sport. Supporters want to see a fast, mobile team play against a powerful pack of behemoths.
That’s the formula for saving English rugby—by bringing back the northern hemisphere style of rugby that suits our weather, climate, and, most importantly, our players.
