Quote: Tez the Saint "All this talk about people want to see an expansive game, Rugby League isn't like football where you've got hundreds of tactics and game plans. You can either offload or you can pass before contact; you can only offload if you've won the contact and you only pass the ball into space if you've created space in the first place - inevitably, the only way that happens is if you win the play-the-ball. Defences are so well organised now and against Australia and NZ, you aren't going to be able to just throw the ball about. Add to that, he only has a small amount of time with the players and it takes months to change the habits players have at club level.
He can only work with the players he has. England's weaknesses (and it's been the same for I don't know how long), is the half backs. There wasn't a shortage of field position but the difference was Australia's ability to build and maintain pressure consistently. Luke Gale kicking on play two for a back rower is an off-the-cuff piece of play but it completely let them off the hook and relieved all the pressure - are people happy with that or does Bennett have a point about England's weakness?
Put a quality half and a quality centre in there today and England win for me. England are a much better team than they were 12 months ago IMO and Bennett has only had a mid season test against Samoa in between then and the World Cup and straight away he's improved the England defence (the main thing for me), if we can keep him for the next few years, hopefully he'll be able to build on that and improve our attack. He knows what it takes to win big games. But, he needs time with the players and if he stays for the next 4 years, I think we'll be in a good position.
A bigger question IMO is his assistant coaches.'"
Good post.
Its become a bit of a cliche in the modern game, but you really do have to "earn the right" to play the expansive stuff, and you do that by running hard, completing your sets and earning field position. You can try to give the ball air from off the back foot if you want, but it generally doesnt end well. 99% of what England did yesterday was perfect for a test match. But having done the groundwork they panicked when they got a chance to attack.