Rugby union: Can England beat All Blacks after 3-0 thrashing of Wallabies

Eddie Jones has slayed the Wallabies but can his England rugby squad now do the same to the All Blacks?

There is still only one leviathan in world rugby. The All Blacks have dominated the sport in the last five years more convincingly than any other team has ever dominated. Reports of their withering victories over Wales these past three weeks have reached us in Australia and caused shivers amongst all their opponents.

But now there is a contender. England are leading the chase. Their magnificent domination of Australia this month will send messages even to the deep south of their intent. This team will arrive home in triumph this week, whereas almost every other British or Irish team that ever toured came back with their tails between their legs .

So thoughts no doubt turned last night to England and New Zealand, bracketed together in a thrilling new rivalry. So it may be something of a shock to learn that no games between the teams are yet arranged. They will not meet in the autumn of 2016, England are not due to tour New Zealand for some years and fixtures for the 2017 autumn program are not yet finalised.

And yet it is almost certain that the All Blacks will come to Twickenham in 2017, so Eddie Jones has some decent space and time to complete the process which he has begun with such excellence.

But how should England approach it? Should they do the same as Wales? Wales always try to play New Zealand at their own game. They try to compete with them in the traditional unstructured game, a style which the All Blacks are now perfecting even more, with even less structure.

There are even fewer reference points, not many scrums or driving mauls, and not much physical confrontation. What has happened for many years is that Wales play bravely and optimistically, but always lose. The one team which is best at playing in the New Zealand style, is New Zealand. Others attempting to emulate them come across as poor man’s Kiwis.

Dylan Hartley, the England captain holds the Cook Cup with England head coach Eddie Jones after last night’s victory over the Wallabies.

You hope and expect that Jones will not be suckered in, will ignore the sermonising of Steve Hanson, New Zealand’s coach, who is the self-appointed arbiter of how all rival teams should play.

For a long time the chase after New Zealand will be simply a background agenda, there are plenty of other teams which have to be attacked in different ways. But Jones should carry through a style which is all England’s own, which suits the players that they have rather than the country they would like to beat.

You would hope and pray that Jones develops an even more confrontational England team that refuses to play ball; a team which blasts New Zealand in all the primary and secondary phases, which takes away the oxygen of space, and which means that even if New Zealand are going to play unstructured rugby, then they will need to do so off the back foot.

Jones promised to restore England’s heritage of great scrummaging — and New Zealand are never more anxious than when England have a giant and aggressive pack. Dan Cole, Paul Hill, Kieran Brookes, and Jake Cooper-Wooley, the tight-heads in the lineage, must produce from their ranks a savage scrummaging tight-head alongside Dylan Hartley.

And England are also perfectly positioned to do harm to New Zealand’s excellent lineout. Last week in Melbourne it did not function properly and all week, lineout expert Steve Borthwick had promised everyone that yesterday it would go well. It did. George Kruis is exactly the sort of lithe athlete who can be lifted high and rapidly in New Zealand style, often almost unchallenged.

It is partly to chase New Zealand that I fancy Maro Itoje as a back row man rather than a lock. To have his brilliant talents in the team is essential but to post him in the back row gives England the chance to choose another heavyweight at lock, to bulk up the team. The fact is that New Zealand are not a massive team and rarely have been. They choose their forwards at least partly on rugby-playing ability. That is fine, but teams that take them on in that phase cannot succeed, while those who try to take the legs away from them, metaphorically and physically, do have a chance.

Jones to date has established an excellent balance between employing experience and youngsters. Last night after the success in the third Test, he spoke of drafting three or four players from England’s current Under-20 team into the full England squad providing he sees players who are good enough. His regime has been in part brutal with new men, as we saw from the banishment so early in the game of Luther Burrell in Brisbane and Teimana Harrison in Sydney last night — but together with this, he is open to new faces, providing that they demand no softness, and demand no special privileges.

No-one could possibly have envisaged how quickly this England team would have improved or, rather, come from nowhere. They have now won eight games in succession with Jones at the helm, and some of the players appear to have grown two or three inches in that short period of time. The evidence of the Saxons’ series victory in South Africa and the exploits of the Under-20s does point to a golden era, and one in which England would have to play second fiddle to no one.

Jones is perfectly correct to insist that England still have so far to travel before they can throw down the gauntlet to New Zealand. But they do not have to travel as far as he says in public, and if they travel by an English route, making the best of the rich seam at their disposal rather than trying to be All Blacks in white jerseys, then they may well get there. It will then be Arise, Sir Eddie, and a team to be proud of.

THE SUNDAY TIMES