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England need to find their belief says Miles

Miles Harrison Posted 20th November 2009 view comments

A loss to Australia and a scrambled victory over Argentina has had the fans and critics alike pointing fingers at England. They now face their toughest task of the autumn against the number one ranked side in the world.

Martin Johnson has made three personal changes with Ayoola Erinle getting his first start replacing Shane Geraghty at inside centre. Simon Shaw makes a welcome return at lock and Joe Worsely comes in at blindside.

Richie McCaw: All Black skipper and flanker extraordinaire

Richie McCaw: All Black skipper and flanker extraordinaire

After a below par performance from Ugo Monye at full-back he moves back to his position on the left wing with Matt Banahan switching to the right wing and Mark Cueto takes over the No.15 shirt.

Miles Harrison will once again be at Twickenham to commentate on the game and is hoping that the cheers drown out any boos.

After the game last week Matt Banahan said that they HAD to win and that style was not the main issue. Is that the same for this week?

Those who do beat the All Blacks normally have to play with 'style' in order to create sufficient chances. I think we all know that if England play like they did last week against Argentina then they will lose this weekend.

Miles Harrison
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MILES REPLIES: Yes, in that an England victory against the All Blacks, home or away, is something to be treasured - they do not come around very often and only the result is remembered, not the performance. But, those who do beat the All Blacks normally have to play with 'style' in order to create sufficient chances. I think we all know that if England play like they did last week against Argentina then they will lose this weekend, and by a big margin too.

We saw some players looking towards the replacements bench against Argentina; do you feel that the players may be receiving mixed messages from the coaching team?

MILES REPLIES: I'm not sure they received mixed messages last week during the match; it is more that they received the wrong one before it. Brian Smith has admitted to the bad call that he and the management team made regarding the reading of the weather - feeling that the coaches pushed the side into an unnecessarily over-negative mindset. But, I do come back to the point I made here last week - to me, there are simply too many voices for the modern player to listen to in the run-up to games and that's when the messages may become mixed. Surely a player's decision making can be stifled by information overload.

Are England fans right to be as disappointed as they are in this England side? Are they expecting too much from them?

MILES REPLIES: To be fair to the England management, they are not using the excuse of the vast injury list this autumn but it has undoubtedly had an effect on their plans. However, to focus on that issue would be wrong - English supporters have a right to expect wins especially given the prices they now have to pay to watch a game at Twickenham. England are the home side at this time of year and they need to start to show the benefit of this advantage.

What do you think of the changes to the England team? Shaw was pretty much expected however Ayoola Erinle is a bit of a surprise?

MILES REPLIES: Yes, you could see the return of Simon Shaw coming and I could have predicted Joe Worsley's return as well. England have not been playing the kind of game to allow Tom Croft to show his talents to the best. In the centre, I feel for Shane Geraghty. We are told the Ayoola Erinle selection is a 'horses for courses' choice. Of course, Erinle's physical presence will help to counter the threat of Ma'a Nonu defensively and I am sure the aim is to get Erinle across the gain line with some strong ball carrying. His distribution skills have improved but he is no Geraghty in that respect and England do need to create as well as stop. I have, though, always felt that Geraghty is more of a 10 than a 12 - this is borne out by his play in those two positions at Northampton this season. With Erinle alongside Dan Hipkiss in midfield, England are rather putting their cards on the table. Nonu and Conrad Smith are very good at finding and exploiting space. We wait to see what happens in what will be a key battle. The move of Ugo Monye away from full-back had to be made. As I have stated here before, Ben Foden would have been my full-back this autumn and I have not changed that view, with Cueto and Monye as the wings and Banahan as a substitute at this stage.

A second string All Blacks pack really struggled against Italy - is that something to give the England scrum hope?

MILES REPLIES: The All Blacks feel that they got a bit of a rough deal with some of the decisions and, to be honest, I can't see this All Black pack being a weakness. This is not the greatest New Zealand team to visit these shores but it would be wrong to give the impression that it is a poor one. In fact, I don't think there is such a thing.

Dan Carter and Richie McCaw are hugely influential players for New Zealand. How can England combat them?

MILES REPLIES: It is true that, at the moment, New Zealand are more heavily reliant on these two greats of the game - they are the two players that make all the different facets of their team tick. England have to get to both of them and that is why Joe Worsley, Lewis Moody and James Haskell have to be on tip top form if England are going to have any chance in this match.

Much has been made of Carter v Jonny Wilkinson, but Wilkinson will really have to improve his tactical kicking against the All Blacks won't he?

MILES REPLIES: I agree totally. We said last week after the Australia game that if it happened again England might get away with it because of Argentina's inexperience and limited game plan - and they did. England and Wilkinson will not get away with it if it happens again versus the All Blacks.

Can England win this one Miles?

MILES REPLIES: New Zealand, although not at their best this year, have the firepower to expose England and, if England play like they have done over the last two weeks, then, of course, they have no chance. England have to believe in themselves and play like a team that is confident it can win instead of a team that looks fearful of defeat. If they do that then they might give themselves an opportunity for a little piece of history but the odds will need to be very good to tempt any rational impartial observer of this autumn's international series down to the bookies.

Comments (3)

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David Dickens says...

I was at Twickenham yesterday. The reason the score was so 'close', in inverted commas was that the AB's played poorly. I have read Johnson's statement that he believes the team have moved forward and that he wishes to take this coaching team forward to the six nations. This is the final nail in his coffin. As a captian you can come to the defence of your staff, as a manager you need to be pragmatic and accept that when you fail changes must be made, in one way or another. All I can see is a reaction to damaged pride, someone lashing out at his accusers. Changes must be made, now is the time, 2011 is now lost but for gods sake lets not lose 2015. This critique will not go away, stamping his feet in a tantrum wont change that. For his one eyed view of 'development' its time he went.

Posted 21:24 22nd November 2009

Andrew Phillips says...

With Martin Johnson in charge we do not have any style or flair. We just try to batter down the defence Rugby has moved on since the 2003 world cup. quick passing, fast players, Stepovers, crossovers. We get rid of Brian Ashton who took us to the 2007 World Cup Final and come within a whisker of winning due to dubious video call by the referee. 6 wins is poor for English Rugby under Martirn Johnson. He was a great captain and legend in the game but this does not transfer to coaching and managing, I was at the game and we had no oomph just kick the ball to touch and hope. We fail to score a try against Australia and New Zealand over 160 minutes. We score against Argentina due to there inexperince. Australia were there for the taking and we did not take the opprotuniny, then Argentina wow what a win. Im sorry to say but Martin Johnson needs to be sacked and replaced with someone who can take us to the next level and regain the webb ellis trophy, someone who can get us playing attacking exciting Rugby Union.

Posted 16:38 21st November 2009

Patrick Heyland says...

In 5 years against the All Blacks England have not gained ground by passing the ball down the line...so WHY do it? Kicks by No 10s must be accurate enough to get own team under them..then its 50/50 possession...so WHY never high enough? If within 120 degree arc & 40 metres from All Blacks posts drop a goal - forget the try glory...3 safe points is better than 5 lost points. Tackled down in possession is not heroic -so lay the ball off like the S hemisphere do. This is not rocket science and maybe, just maybe, we can then beat the All Blacks. If we dont do the above theres no chance!

Posted 14:25 21st November 2009

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