England’s return to basics is ominous

The two guys sent to clean my hotel room the morning after my arrival in Cardiff provided a welcome reminder that this is rugby country.

“It was awesome,” I heard the one saying to the other as they set about hoovering the floor of the last remnants of a late night packet of crisps purchased during the four hour bus journey from Heathrow on Sunday night.

After a week in Buenos Aires, where there was the embarrassing experience of receiving a kiss after one of the Spanish speaking ladies in charge of my accommodation misunderstood what I meant when I asked if there were extra keys (kees?!), it was good to hear a language easily understood.

“Yeah, and I bet those New Zealanders must be nipping themselves for Andy Sheridan,” responded the other, who quite obviously wasn’t a pure-bred taffy.

And so here we go. At the time of writing, the England cricket team were handily placed in their first test against Pakistan, so justifying their media’s contention that the Ashes triumph made them the best in the world.

England beat Argentina in soccer, leading some scribes and players to confidently predict they would win the World Cup.

On the rugby front there was a further reminder that when it comes to the sports pages of the London newspapers, it only really takes one good 80 minute performance to turn a team back into the champions they have generally struggled to be since 2003.

Not that anyone, not even in the English press, is really pretending that Martin Corry’s team are the number one in the world at the oval ball game.

Even the most one-eyed hacks reckon New Zealand have that one sewn up, although I am not sure about the contention of Rupert Bates of the Sunday Telegraph, who proclaimed that the second best team in the world played against Ireland and the best team in the world will be the one that faces England at Twickenham.

There were 15 changes to the All Black team between Wales and Ireland, but then the team that played in Cardiff nearly two weeks ago was not exactly the Kiwi first choice combination.

My money says that Graham Henry will retain quite a few of the 15 that thumped Ireland when he announces his team for Twickenham.

Remember how back in July many South Africans thought Jake White was putting a second string Bok team into the field for the second Mandela Challenge match against Australia.

It turned out that they were much more like the first choice team than the one that had played the previous match in Sydney.

It is an interesting time for rugby, and an interesting time to be watching the sport and reading about it in the northern hemisphere.

We are just two years on from England’s triumph in the 2003 World Cup, but it appears there are many in this neck of the woods who believe the southern hemisphere nations are the leaders again.

Well, let’s rephrase that, the southern hemisphere without Australia, who former England lock Paul Ackford, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, described as an insult to the game through their complete inability to stand up in the set-scrums.

It does seem the Aussies have been well and truly found out in that aspect of their game this year, and maybe Jake White had a point when he spent so much time during the southern season rabbiting on about how the Aussies were being allowed to subvert the real point of the scrumming contest.

They are not getting away with it any more, and how they paid for it at Twickenham.

The London venue was where England showed that while South Africa are talking about discovering an attacking game and New Zealand are refining theirs, there is much to be gained sometimes by simply returning to the basics.

The general consensus among the rugby people of England appeared to be that the England side did not quite do enough to negate the Kiwi right to be called favourites at Twickenham this weekend.

After all, Australia, even when so comprehensively outplayed in the set-pieces, still managed to be level on the scoreboard after an hour.

England’s perceived lack of punch in the midfield may not count against them so much, however, if England attain the same stranglehold over the All Black scrum that they managed over the Wallabies.

Of course, it probably won’t happen, at least not now, but I see the England return to basics as an ominous sign for the other would-be challengers in 2007. With 24 months to go to the next rugby showpiece event, England are finding new heroes to replace the perennially injured Jonny Wilkinson.

That one of them is a prop is an indication that England rugby is returning to the roots of it’s real strength.

They were poor in the last Six Nations, but the champions still have enough time to put it together and mount a serious challenge to New Zealand and South Africa when it counts.