England hand out object lesson

Barring a miraculous turn-around that would go well beyond the bounds of the realistic, England will bow out of this World Cup a couple of weeks short of the final remembered as the worst ever champions of the game’s showpiece event.

The Springboks that followed the 1995 World Cup triumph would have rivalled this England team as abysmal champions when Andre Markgraaff and Carel du Plessis were in charge in 1996 and 1997, but Nick Mallett’s winning run and a Tri-Nations trophy in 1998 ensured the the Bok reign was far from all bad.

England, like they did in getting whitewashed 36-0 by the Boks on a night at Stade de France where they hardly backed their vow to fight to defend the trophy to the very last, have hardly raised more than a whimper in their quest to keep the other challengers at bay over the past four years.

In the three years immediately preceding the last World Cup, England won 33 out of 36 games. The winning habit cannot come much stronger than that. But since the last World Cup final, England have played 42 games including last Friday’s, and won just 16. Worse still, in matches against the top teams Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France and Argentina, they have won just six in 26. That is success rate of significantly less than 25%.

England’s away record has been nothing short of abysmal in that time, and while before 2003 they used to talk of Fortress Twickenham, now even the home of English rugby is no longer such a formidable venue, with the Boks winning their last year with a severely under-strength team, and the likes of Ireland, Scotland and Argentina all managing it at least once in recent times.

England have changed a couple of coaches, with Andy Robinson, with a 40% success rate, giving way to Brian Ashton, who has won just five of his 12 matches, and includes France in last year’s Six Nations as his only top ranked victim so far.

But the rot set in a lot earlier than that, with Ireland winning at Twickenham in one of the first matches played by England post 2003. Clive Woodward, their World Cup winning coach, was still in charge then, and he won three out of eight.

And this is significant, because that is possibly when it turned against England. Woodward, having conquered the world, never seemed to have the energy to start the rebuilding process which was necessary for that nation to challenge again in 2007. Instead, Woodward relied as much as he could on the men who had won the trophy for him but many of whom had reached an age where they should have been signing out of international rugby.

England had followed a coherent plan for six years under Woodward prior to 2003, but in 2004 they were content to celebrate their 2003 triumph rather than move forward. So if the inevitable does come to pass, and England leave this World Cup as the worst champions ever, they can at least console themselves with the thought that they have left world rugby with a gift.

And that gift is the object lesson that they have provided on how not to go about being world champions. If the Springboks go all the way, or even reach the final, Jake White’s claims to continue as Bok coach have to be considered seriously, and I would say that they must keep him on if that is his wish.

We have seen too many instances in South African rugby now where national coaches have been sacked and replaced by inferior specimens. The 2000 experience, where Nick Mallett was shown the door for Harry Viljoen, is a case in point. Bok rugby took until the White era started in 2004 to recover from that decision.

But whatever happens, the rugby people in the South African administration have to sit down with White and discuss the next couple of years, and what he intends to do. To just carry on with the same players if they are not going to be part of the next World Cup challenge might not be too wise.

Most of all, though, the people who run SA Rugby need to recognise that under White there has been relative coaching stability. In other words, he has had four years at the helm, more than any other Bok national coach, and that has been a big part of the Bok success story so far.

England, in the past four years, have had three different coaches. It is small wonder then that they have arrived at this World Cup not sure of their best team, and still searching for the right combinations. That was South Africa’s experience of 2003, when the Boks arrived in Australia having had three coaches since the 1999 tournament.

Coaching stability and forward planning are the pre-requisites for a strong World Cup challenge. South Africa, thanks mainly to White, have had that, so have New Zealand. England never had it, and that is why they stare down the barrel.