by At Twickenham on Saturday, one team registered 522 running metres, 164 completed passes and eight clear breaks, kicking the ball 23 times. The other kicked the ball more, 28 times, but they were inferior to the rest of those metrics, managing a meager 243 running metres, completing 120 passes and recording two clean breaks.
On the evidence of the two Six Nations meetings between the teams, England would be expected to be the least expansive outfit. Many suspected that they might just employ destructive, destructive tactics to thwart Ireland in round four. Instead, two weeks after their error-ridden evening at Murrayfield, the hosts intrepid attack dictated terms.
Perhaps more than any other selection call, the decision to keep George Furbank at full-back showed how Steve Borthwick was willing to risk losing – or at least making mistakes – in order to win.
Furbank completed a neat first-step move to score against Scotland, but spilled a couple of passes in a lackluster England display. Duhan van der Merwe’s second try resulted in one costly direct save. Furbank made more mistakes on Saturday. Overall, however, he showed a bold approach. Within four minutes, Furbank had inspired a great effort.
Note his stance from this restart, which comes after Ireland go 3-0 up:
Every game, England directed these kicks towards Bundee Aki, pressing the keeper with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Ollie Chessum. Then Sam Underhill and Maro Itoje were pushing them to tackle the next stage. James Lowe would then clear the turf, ideally from a tricky angle under pressure. Sure enough, Ben Earl is able to get into the kicker’s eye line here:
Furbank gathers close to the touchline, and spears towards the middle of the field before feeding Tommy Freeman, who flattens Calvin Nash. George Martin and Jamie George step in to knock Josh van der Flier out of the break:
As you return to the point where Furbank throws the looping ball, see how quickly Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence get back to take part in this kick return. Both of them have made a beeline towards the far starting line:
The work of Slade and Lawrence, as well as that of Furbank, will pay for the next step. While Ireland hovers near the wreckage, England floods beyond. Furbank meets back George Ford and helps the hosts pick out overlaps with running and well-timed passes:
Furbank’s own effort, which came in the second period, was also indebted to the sticking of the ball. Collectively, England were far more buoyant in terms of return opportunities. Furbank, Itoje and Sam Underhill are all in this screenshot as Jamison Gibson-Park cleans up:
Ford intercepts and moves the ball upfield to Slade. Lawrence is caught in possession but releases to Feyi-Waboso and strong behavior buys time:
The ball is recycled and, once again, Ireland are close to the ruck. Their defensive structure is a mess, with five players in front of one attacker, Earl, on the blind side. England find the space and quickly take some stage shape:
Underhill, Itoje and Furbank, no doubt organizers from around the world, are the last three to touch the ball:
Furbank aimed to improve the contact area last summer and showed a willingness to push on the edge of the forward line, outside of his wings, as part of the blitz defense:
In the kicking exchanges, where Freddie Steward was so imperious for England, Furbank was generally solid. That being said, Lowe pulled it off at halftime.
Gibson-Park moves to the right at the back of this scrum before spinning to Ireland’s left. Lowe sends the ball over Furbank’s shoulder, causing him to decide whether to take it or just let it go. Furbank chooses to catch and step over the touch, conceding a line-out that resulted in three points for Ireland:
After half-time, Ireland scored a great converted try of their own when Freeman failed to deal with a Gibson-Park box kick.
Moments earlier, however, Furbank had contested this Ford, which helped put pressure on Jack Crowley. England should have had a penalty for Tadhg Beirne playing the loose ball from an offside position:
Later, in the 55th minute as tension was building, Furbank and Feyi-Waboso combined to win back this high Crowley ball:
All in all, Furbank’s presence certainly added to his team’s attacking force and they seemed to suit them as well. Here, on the back of a stolen line, England play wide quickly. Watch as Furbank hits the line and Henry Slade heads into space. Slade sells a dummy towards Furbank before feeding Feyi-Waboso:
When the dust settles, England’s players and coaches should be excited about the potential to improve their game with this new approach to attack. Because they had a chance to score more points against Ireland.
Here, in the 10th minute, Furbank moves behind Slade as Lawrence cuts a short line. Watch Ciarán Frawley as full-back for Ireland, pushing up towards the front line:
Slade pulls the ball behind Lawrence to Furbank, but the latter is crowded and concedes a breakdown turnover to the jackalling Van der Flier:
At this point, gloom may have turned behind Ireland and caused serious problems:
About 14 minutes later, when Lawrence received a pass from Ford behind Underhill, Furbank almost scored himself from a cute clip:
Just before half-time, England managed a popular strike move from a line-out across Ireland’s 10-metre line. Earle is in midfield cutting a short line off Slade’s shoulder with Ford at the back and Feyi-Waboso scrambling around from the blindside wing:
The move breaks down after Feyi-Waboso is fed behind another lead line from Lawrence and Furbank’s spill:
Furbank and Feyi-Waboso discuss the immediate situation:
From the forward’s body language, it looks like he was asking Feyi-Waboso to extend this position or play an earlier pass. Other options would be a missed pass straight to Tommy Freeman or a kick in behind Frawley:
In truth, England might have had an easier time if they had gone through smaller steps around the halfway mark. In this case, from Conor Murray’s kick…
…Furbank counters and is caught, giving away the second penalty for holding on:
It was to his credit, and again as an example of the perseverance shown by England, that Furbank kept coming. By working his way into the second receiver slot behind Marcus Smith here…
… makes room for Chandler Cunningham-South as a lead runner:
Look at his work rate here, too, as Freeman seems in danger of being held up. Furbank beats the tackle and helps force his Northampton Saint teammate:
Furbank also went close to the try line before Marcus Smith’s goal at the death.
All things considered, his performance felt extremely impressive. He repaid the faith of his head coach and backed the bold direction in which England are travelling, not to mention the insistence of the players that they were working on their attack in training.
It is worth repeating that Steve Borthwick chose Marcus Smith as the goalkeeper for the World Cup quarter final. It could be argued that Borthwick’s reputation for being cautious and conservative is under siege. That said, Freddie Steward is sure to add to his 33 caps when the team’s tactics call for his skills. He was excellent against Wales.
But, as Borthwick suggested before the weekend, England will continue to improve with more and more time together. Furbank, now his starting goal, has certainly proven as much.
