It was billed as Jones vs Borthwick, their first meeting since parting ways in 2020.
Jones the master tactician, has a plan for everyone. back with the all out attack of Japan, vs England’s boring Set Piece dominated game plan.
In truth, as it turned out, it was the complete opposite. England’s attack was destructive and clinical, 8 tries taken against a Japanese side who recorded an 84% tackle success rate.
If you only watched the opening 10 minutes of this game and you’d be forgiven in thinking that England were jet lagged ino oblivion and Japan were going to dominate.
Japan played with such pace and speed they frequently found gaps in the defence. As it turns out it was all a lot of bluster for only 3 points returned.
England leading into their 1st Try, from which Japan never recovered, had made a quarter of their total tackles for the game and half of their missed tackles, so in only 12 Minutes Japan used a quarter of their attacking capital for only 3 points.
But it gets so much worse for Japan.
That opening 10 minutes, as entertaining as it was shows, that being clinical is the most important skill a team can learn in terms of game management.
More important than having more possession or building a 30 phase attack sequence, and in the entire game, England scored a try for every 2.75 tackles missed by Japan. Japan in contrast struggled to score 1 try for every 16.5 missed tackles by England.
To put this another way, England made 72 tackles to a ratio of each of Japans Tries, whilst Japan made only 15.3 to each of England’s.
England Scored a try with every 12.5% of possession they had compared to Japan’s 50%.
It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it, eh?
During that opening 10 minutes questions were asked of England’s new Felix Jones defence, doubts were cast but let’s look at what was going on both sides of the ball in both Japan’s attack and England’s Defence on the first sequence of play.
Japan’s opening attack comes from an English Exit. Mitchell kicks long and they immediately put them under pressure from the high ball with Freeman on the chase.
Lee in my opinion should have competed here, but eventually they regather.
No Japanese player claiming the ball clean means they are disorganised with their transition and, even though Japan recycle, that disruption, has slowed it enough that Japan are then hit behind the gain line, losing more ground post-kick.
In the next phase we can see England have taken that phase to rebuild their defensive line, notice they are 15 to 15, happy to leave the 15m channel open.
This makes them thick in the middle (see the cluster of defenders closest to the ruck) and knowing that’s not a risk area they are now in a position to pressure the Japanese attack.
Passing is an important skill, but passing when necessary is the key, the heavy midfield defence reduces risk in the middle and encourages risk for the attack by playing to the edge, every pass is a new opportunity to apply pressure or force an error. In many ways it plays into the hands of the defence who will back themselves to get pressure onto the ball.
Slade shoots and the net loss is around another 8 m post-kick gather and around 50m post-kick.
Notice as Slade Shoots how everyone else just cools off and fills the space behind him should he get it wrong and he gets stepped. It’s high risk defence, with a safety net built in.
Finally, with all the pressure on them Japan are ready to turn England and thread a lovely grubber kick through.
Why here and why now?
Because of the 50 – 22 kick laws England’s back three have to sit a little deeper and this gives space to run into and once broken England are having to turn and play on the back foot.
By bringing England out from their 22m area they generate space behind the English line. We can see England are content to leave the edge open and get their backfield to track the ball – notice how Furbank suddenly pops into view and pushes up to cut off that outside pass?
It stops the pass but opens up the kick behind option.
Notice there is no fold under from England, their priority is pressure on the ball and line integrity behind it, and they trust their pendulum system to manage the rest.
See how Smith tracks the ball and makes the tackle assisted by Feyi-Waboso. Frubank pushes up, Smith comes across Micthell drops into the back field.
Both Wingers stay ready to impact the attack where possible.
A trademark of South Africa’s defence with Neinaber and Jones was decision-making in defence.
The framework allowed for individuals to break ranks and try to influence the opposition attack.
Slade on the previous press, and here watch how Earl shoots out swims past the dummy runner and then gets in the passing line of the 9.
But also watch how the wider defence don’t shoot up and past Earl, they instead hold their feet and when they see what’s unfolding they add a second defensive movement to the press.
Also notice how the defence is ball watching, looking in to apply pressure on the passer and trusting the next man out to pick up any trail runners.
Turning in, as opposed to out, allows the outside man to watch what the inside player is doing whilst also keeping an eye on the trail runner.
Japan start offloading to break the line and get back to where they started, and look to play down this enlarged blind side.
Feyi-Waboso’s decision here at first glance looks like an error, but again, watching how knowing he is isolated and confident in his decision making shoots out to try and force a poor pass. He runs across to builds up speed and then when the pass is made he shoots already at top speed.
This is very reminiscent to the way de Klerk shoots out for South Africa (funny that, eh?), coming from behind the line so he is moving before the pass.
And whilst Japan do get the ball around and to the outside look how the passing is impacted, Japan is throwing big wild passes that yes, get to space but also check runners momentum wasting that valuable space and giving England valuable recovery time to get back and make the tackle.
Japan plays through England at the next but one ruck, but when they go wide again, look how England’s high press defence constantly impacts the quality of Japan’s passing, giving Freeman the chance to read and make a solid hit.
And then again, more notably here, on the wide attack, where Japan having left Costley back on the sideline to carry the passing under pressure checks the forward momentum.
And yes, while Japan do get to the edge and do make yards those little checks in speed get England back into the game and they can cover.
Japan on the front foot and with momentum flood through and Rodd is penalised for offside, but as they regroup they play short hitting shoulders and finally, an offload opens the England defence before they are dragged short.
Now watch Smith, can’t get the jackal so doesn’t get tied in and is able to counter ruck disrupt the Japanese ball into an error and we go back for the penalty.
7 points averted. Japan, faced with a difficult goal kick and feeling momentum was with them, opt for the lineout and lose the ball.
It’s intelligent defence from Smith, and what we see all through this sequence is players making decisions within a system that allows them to break from it when they feel they might make a difference. They might not get the hit in but they might disrupt the attack for a better outcome further down the line.
Let’s be clear this is a far from perfect piece of defence, Japan make yards on the edge even though they get little return from playing in the middle and a multilayered attack but I think we’re starting to really see Felix Jones influence here and the slow change of direction to a reactive decision making defence..
Similarly, we see the kind of attack Japan has become synonymous with:
- High Pass Rate
- Lightning Quick Ball
- Edge to Edge attack
- High Risk skills – offloading
But something that England was under Jones (Eddie) was intelligent and in that context, this is somewhat of a weird and unnecessary use of the ball:
- England kick-chased with Freeman and Mitchell nearby.
- If we push back a few seconds we can also see that Smith doesn’t initially wait in the back field,
So potentially there was scope to kick back into the same area and force England backwards again, even if Smith drops back he has no counterattack support so chances are England kick long or to the touchline surrendering possession and potentially in a better place.
Instead, 15 phases and coming away with nothing?
Confirmation bias perhaps but it feels like Jones penchant for a good set play is tailor-made for this Japan side against a thinned-out defence with a little more space to work in.
Looking forward to the next test match vs New Zealand they’ll know exactly what is coming their way and will have a far higher skill set ready to take these opportunities.
Japan got some reward playing through and around the ruck, hitting shoulders. New Zealand will almost definitely use this tactic to drag the English defence in another man and then look to exploit that extra space on the edge.
Author: The Dead Ball Area