Durban - Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett did not hold back when he analysed England’s 53-10 defeat to France in the Six Nations and predicted that Ireland will “clean up” when they host the English on Saturday.
Mallett coached against England many times during his tenures as coach of South Africa and later Italy, and is bemused at the composition of the English pack under new coach Steve Borthwick.
Speaking on SuperSport, Mallett can’t understand why England went into last week’s clash against France at Twickenham without the players to fight fire with fire.
“England are really battling,” he said. “They haven’t got ball carriers, they haven’t got a really physical front row that can take on the opposition.
“Their locks are like our flanks, their flanks are like opensiders, they’re not ball carriers either. So they don’t have anyone to get across the advantage line. When you looked at France playing, it looked like men against boys. The three French loose forwards just dominated that game. (Jonathan) Danty took it up, made three turnovers as a centre. It just looked like men against club players.
“They are in a spot of trouble, England. If they go in there with (lightweight flyhalf) Marcus Smith, it goes against the whole ethos of what Borthwick was doing at the beginning, which was to go back to basics and concentrate on the scrum, concentrate on the lineout, territory and defence.
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“If you’re a coach, you’ve got to have a clear idea of where you want to go with the players at your disposal. So, say for example you’re picking up a team that hasn’t been doing well, you want to make sure they don’t take big hidings.
“Start off with small steps and I thought Borthwick did that quite well, intelligently to begin with. But bringing Smith in really did change the dynamic. Suddenly it looked like he said ‘let’s play fast and loose against the French.’ Now that’s the one thing you never do against the French, and they just profited from so many English errors.
“There were no good ball carriers, there were no decent set pieces, their kicking game wasn’t good, the physicality of the French – and the Irish – is a step above anything English rugby is producing at the moment.
“In this team, you’re casting your net out wide and you can’t find a decent tighthead prop in England, you can’t find a good ball-carrying lock. So I think they’re in a bit of a spot and I think Ireland are going to clean up on Saturday.”
IOL Sport