“We go again.” Since 2016 these three simple words, screamed by players and captain alike, symbolise the England way.
Dylan Hartley repeated it in the changing rooms after the Australia tour. Billy Vunipola screamed this to his players before their final first-half scrum against Ireland. It has become something of a motto, a war cry to drive the players to a higher mindset.
The drive to become relentless.
Ireland are an incredibly efficient and technically superior team. They do the basics and fine details to a level far beyond any other rugby team.
But England came to play. Under their arm they brought a fury for the fight and their new philosophy to launch against Ireland. The result was one of the finest performances by an England team since November 2012.
This performance was built on the England defence. As such, we’ll investigate the dynamics of the new England way in defence and why Eddie Jones has now fallen back to this as the cornerstone of the game.
The England way: England in defence
John Mitchell can be very proud. His defence was sensational.
England made an unprecedented number of dominant tackles, and there was little to be done about the power of the defensive line England brought to bear. Their desire to get off the line, to get back in, to make bone-crunching tackles, was relentless.
The John Mitchell defence is in areas remarkably similar to the All Blacks ‘whip’ defence, the dynamics of which will be shown in a future article.
Watch this clip and another short excerpt of the Ireland vs All Blacks match. Hopefully you can see the similarities with this clip and the following video.
There is a higher onus on physicality, but what I really have to admire is the street smarts enlightened on the players by Mitchell in their technical skills.
The make-up
England are happy to give the opposition the overlap in their new system. Generally their tight five and pack are stationed closer to the ruck, with their backline players further out to act as the speed men in case they are outflanked. The tight five, as you can see here, get through so much work in defence it’s scary.
What England are counting on, however, is limiting the opposition earning the right to go wide. This means the priority for England are opposition ‘one-out’ pods.
England station their heaviest players here, the principle being if you target hard here, you will cut off near all wide attacks before they can be launched.
As we saw all day against Ireland, if wide plays are launched off back football, the defensive line has had time to reset. They’ll be on you before the ball can get past the 13 channel. That means not only do the attacks not achieve their aim, but you’re far further back than you were before.
England were outflanked on occasions and the gainline was broken, but the instances were few and far between. The majority of the time they had time to reset, realign and go again.
For the whole game they were assisted by some of the dynamics built into the defence. Let’s take a look at them.
The double hit
England’s defence is based on dominant tackles. They will constrict their line and happily give the overlap if it means making dominant tackles. This is their defensive foundation.
This means they hunt in twos. Everything the tacklers do is meant to destabilise and delay the opposition ruck speed. Ireland’s breakdown is the best in the world. This is mainly due to their carriers falling in a position where they can immediately present the ball with no adjustment. England’s double hit dynamic didn’t allow this.
The England way: Ireland 2019
England retain their chop tackle options, but an extra addition we’ve seen is the use of higher tackles. In a lot of one-out tackles the first hit from the first tackler is designed to direct the tackler ‘up’. This is especially prevalent against upright runners. Straight from England’s judo seminars, an opponent is always weaker with a higher centre of gravity. This first hit lengthens the carrier.
This hit means they’re contained and latched onto, stopping the momentum. The second tackler then cradles the arms and either holds up for the maul or drives hard, taking advantage of their unstable position and grounding the carrier on their terms, as we can see clearly in the second double hits. Their arms are still around the ball, slowing delivery and the ruck and allowing the defence to reset.
This is not the first game we’ve seen this.
The England way: New Zealand 2018
The All Blacks were introduced to the double hit as well and, as was can see, the lessons learnt were put in place for Ireland.
Maro Itoje directs Julian Savea up, allowing Owen Farrell to come in for the rip.
Not happy with Jonny May’s intervention, Kyle Sinckler makes sure the tackle fast becomes dominant.
New Zealand are so sick of double hits by this point that Damian McKenzie clears Farrell out before he can affect it.
Plaudits must go to Mark Wilson, who over the autumn internationals came in as the second tackler so many times to such destructive effect that he has played himself into the starting 15.
The result
This new defensive system is susceptible to quick ball, but England’s defence near squashes any chance of it. The urge England now have to double hit also results in mauls, which Ireland conceded against. Due to their accuracy at the breakdown, this hardly ever happens, yet England did it. If they keep slowing the ball down at the source, they can realign in time and go again.
The effects of slowing the ball down can be seen here. England reset and gain near 20 metres and a penalty.
Courtney Lawes here targets Garry Ringrose, not buying the outside post setup. England have done their homework.
Yet again we see Lawes make the tackle. As it isn’t dominant enough, another man comes in to hit. Who else but the indomitable Mark Wilson.
With one-out runners contained with dominant hits, the opposition can only kick.
With players like May, Elliot Daly and Joe Cokanasiga in the backfield too, England will go again.
Opposition teams will not like that.
taylorman
Roar Guru
Oops, sorry mitch, but regression back to the 90’s isnt recommended. That was awful. Well done Wales, about to be handed a 6N trophy simply by working out what the other teams gonna do... not really that difficult though. Ireland might be tougher, but also easier to untangle.
Conor Wilson
Roar Pro
Thank you very much Nick! :)
mzilikazi
Roar Pro
Excellent article, Conor. I really enjoy your analysis. Be interesting to see how Wales and Scotland approach their England games. At least they know how England will operate....fascinating to see if either can win. Can't see England losing two games, so they should win the Six Nations this year.
terrykidd
Roar Pro
My thought to beat this English defensive system is to drive up the middle, picking and driving, inside where they station their defensive pods. Hammer it for 5, 6, 7 phases until you have displaced the wider defensive pods and back peddle that fast moving defensive line enough times that they get used to not coming up and then move it wide, seeking the wider channels. Mind you it also requires all your forwards to work in tight, picking, driving, cleaning out, being driven and directed by the halfback. The result is you disorganize the defence and create opportunities at worst, or splinter the defence and create better opportunities at best ..... or you earn penalties.
MitchO
Guest
Cheers for the article Conor. Aussie will always be in trouble coz our guys never seem to go low enough into contact. I know it was only Italy but old man AAC handled the contact situations with much more intelligence and feel than I seen for a while and before then I remember that trial game a while back (the one Dempsey got injured and Quade carded) where the ability in contact of Ben McCalman and old man Cliffy Palu was unfortunately obvious. In regard to exporting coaches, Don Talbot aside it was Rod Marsh who apparently did a great job getting the English Cricket Academy firing one he'd finished doing it with the Australian Academy.
Lara
Guest
No doubt you have to be very physical against England n have the speed to recycle n hit the fast accurate pass into space for your runners...very hard to do n only a few teams can do it. The Boks have the power game n if their backs can click n they can , they can take England. Ireland do not seem to have the skilled backs to execute just yet, but they know they have to ,to win the RWC. The ABs will be watching with interest, they will be looking at when they can throw that final pass . With Bender at fullback n watching how it will unfold, he will be calling the shots for when to let it go.....timing n patience n forward control at the breakdown. One other thing ,watch how the teams will use the blindside to create maximum width of the field .
Stu
Roar Rookie
Very good analysis. Such a high level of physical fitness required to pull this off, but also indicative of the commitment standards required in the professional era. I just can't imagine our lethargic WB players would ever buy into this level of desire, interest or personal commitment to make it happen. Training sessions under Eddie Jones clearly must be hell-like, immense hard work by all involved, and productivity must be utterly through the roof. What do our Wallabies do when they "train"? The fact they don't even slightly improve a broken skill set or tactical weak area from week to week leaves me aghast, and suggests they might not be training quite the same way, to put it diplomatically. Did the ARU even make the jump to the professional era?
Eugene
Guest
Thought it was going to be an Armidale scoop where Albies or the Blues were coming to rescue the Wallabies.
Harry Jones
Expert
Excellent article, Conor. Big onus on fitness, this system.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Nice article Conor - good work!
Craig
Guest
Great article Conor. Begs the question why Oz can't adopt a similar gang tackle system instead of trying to hide certain players in defence. Not as if our current system doesn't see us routinely overlapped, after all. I guess England have the luxury of some very fast backs as cover.
ethan
Guest
You should be getting Nick Bishop sized response, great stuff mate!
CUW
Roar Rookie
the the clock goes forwards the defence tends to be off side , tho not penalized in the last 2 matches. also something i hate about the french refs is that they allow slowing the ball down much more and longer thann other refs. it happened during the Lions matches and it is happening in the 6 nations now ( not necessarily england ). this helps the defences to align and get set for the big hits. something else tho not about defence - the dummy running which is very prominent . it looks very basketball - like screens. u dont have to bump the defender - just make sure his line of sight is disturbed long enuf to wrongfoot him. i also observe that the pet-peeve of the refs this time around is the lineout - maintaining the gap, being properly aligned - jumping accross. not much if the throw is flawed if the other team is not jumping.
Bushranger
Guest
This defensive alignment also opens up opportunities for the attack. There are open spaces behind the defensive backline which could be exploited by judicious kicks. If a gap can be created in close and the blind winger or a loose forward put though then the attack will be in open space behind the defensive line with the wider attackers coming though the defence at pace with the defence outside having to stop and turn around to manage that. Also it won't work against a flat attacking line. The beauty of this defence is that because the attack is set deep, it is caught metres behind the gain line but a flat attacking line is right on the gain line and this defence can't be used. Sure the defence is closer to the attack but, if done properly, a flat attack can be through the defence much more quickly.
Conor Wilson
Roar Pro
No worries Muzzo. That i believe was an error by the editors in publishing. I only mentioned Savea in my manuscript. Hence why the Gifs also don't show as they should unfortunately, but appreciate the comment regardless. I think a healthy Australian influence has always paired well with English Sport. We had Clive bringing over the flat Australian attack to England whilst he played for Manly, Shane Sutton, who in cycling has made Britain the undeniable best in the world, and Eddie, now with England also. Maybe its the cultural element, but the pairing does seem to work.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Interesting read Conor, but in the NZ section, where you said, Itoje directs, Julian Savea. I think you'll find it was his brother Ardie. No doubt, there will be slight alterations, in many team structures before the RWC, as yes, the Poms have been going well, in this years six nations. Mind you, it does seem that the Australasian influence, has helped in regards to coaching & player wise. Interesting times ahead, maybe!!