The Roses were burned by a Dragon and trampled by a Wallaby

It is with a heavy sigh and a lot of disappointment that England have exited the World Cup in the pool stages, after losing back-to-back games against Wales and Australia. The home nation's tournament got off to a good start against Fiji, but it just was not to be against the more difficult opponents in what was termed the 'pool of death'. The question is, what did England do wrong and what did our opponents do right? 

Our first game against Fiji was by no means perfect - there were plenty of mistakes and we started the second half very slowly - but we eventually came out on top and got, what was at that time, a very important bonus point. Neither Australia nor Wales managed to achieve this and considering the fact that Fiji have talent in abundance, it seemed to put us in a good position for the other fixtures. George Ford had a very controlled game, managing to get us in the right places on the pitch and stop the opposition from getting any good position themselves. He has certainly come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, giving England so much more attacking flair in the process. Mike Brown also had a great game considering that he came up against Nemani Nadolo - probably Fiji's best player on the day. A huge guy, any player would need some serious balls to take him on. Brown is probably the one England player who would fit this description to a T - he never shies away from the high ball, and will give the contest everything that he's got. 

The conclusion of this match did bring with it some criticism of the host's game play, predominantly that at the breakdown. For whatever reason, whether that be the forwards pack was too old or just unprepared, England found themselves on the back foot in this area. Considering how much emphasis the team had put on this beforehand, it left everyone slightly confused. We also tended to squander our chances way too easily, which explains why we didn't score our third try until 72 minutes had passed. Yes, we had won the match at that point, but we left it to the last minute to secure our fourth try, and thus the bonus point. With the attacking prowess we all know England possesses, they had really underperformed.

Going into the Wales game, the men in white knew what they had to do better, especially against a team that could especially exploit our shortcomings. In the first half, England were on top in almost all assets and were clearly the better team. Whilst they may not have used this completely to their advantage (going in at half-time only five points ahead) it was looking good for the remainder of the match. But, with England consistently getting pinged in the second half for silly little offences, the match was to turn on its head. The home side effectively let Wales back into the game through their own ill-discipline; the men in red just had to sit back and let this happen, because they themselves did not play that well on the whole. 

Giving away penalties destroys your game in two ways: first, it means you get no possession and without it there's no chance to get points, and second, it gifts the possession away and allows the opposition to get those points. Sounds simple, right? We all know it, it's a fundamental principle in rugby. But England failed to even follow this. They did play some good rugby, but that didn't matter. We gave the game away, and this was the result that ended England's tournament. There was still the fixture against Australia, but even if we managed to win that, there was still the small matter of having to rely on other results. And no team wants to be in that position.

Now we come to the game against Australia, which was a whole new level of disaster. Right from the outset, we were giving away penalty after penalty. It did not bode well, and demonstrated that the team clearly had not learned from the previous week's mistakes. The forward pack had an absolute shocker - the amount of turnovers was in the double figures and it was, quite frankly, embarrassing. With ball in hand, our back line can be very dangerous, but they were never given the platform to do this. 

At half-time, the deficit was one that England could close - 14 points, two converted tries. Definitely within their grasp, and the first try did go to the home team. With only ten minutes left on the clock there was only a seven point difference, but then England's discipline came back to haunt them. Same old story. Owen Farrell got a yellow card, with Sam Burgess lucky not to get one, and the match was clearly over. Australia took full advantage, scoring a try and kicking the conversion plus two penalties. England's World Cup was definitely over.

You will probably hear plenty of reasons, or even excuses, as to why the hosts failed to qualify. But the main one was that the team was not good enough. Stuart Lancaster came under fire for his selection choices early on, and many people tried to rationalise it. However, it seemed that those questions were the right ones. The head coach did not pick on form, as he tried to tell us he did on multiple occasions. Luther Burrell was sent home and Sam Burgess was selected. Kyle Eastmond was dropped whilst Brad Barritt was allowed to stay. Henry Slade was kept but never used. Chris Robshaw was below average yet he is the captain. Tom Wood had a bad tournament but was not swapped out. I could go on. Lancaster, and the rest of the coaching team, made mistakes. Mistakes in a World Cup? Catastrophic. 

That being said, England do have one final game and we should support them until the end. The players are not to blame; they were selected and they played. Our after-tournament review will take place after the Uruguay match, and only then will we know what is going to become of the current guys in charge. All that can be said is England supporters are making huge cries for the coaching team to be completely revamped, and who can blame them? What I hope none of you forget, though, is that this has been one hell of a tournament so far, regardless of what has happened to the home nation. Full of twists and turns (just look at Japan), it has kept everyone on the edge of their seats. 

So there you have it - England's short World Cup adventure. Despite this outcome, I hope you enjoy watching the rest of the competition.

Thanks for reading ruckers,
Jess.

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