England: Rugby World Cup journey is under way – now it needs to pick up speed
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By Tom Fordyce
Chief sports writer
It matters how you begin a World Cup but not as much as you complete it.
Eddie Jones was profound in a lot of those ding-dongs to realise , along with his grin after England’s stuttering 35-3 win over Tonga on Sunday was of a guy who understands that he has opportunity and time to find.
He might have to look for it following a performance which was less of a fee on to the World Cup period compared to a stumble through the opening curtain.
You feel like you’ve lost a bit and can win matches. Victory is expected by Everybody. Plenty anticipate something extravagant, especially when the resistance have dropped six of their past seven games, including beats by Samoa, Fiji and Japan.
It does not need to matter. Only win. Get the bonus point. Keep everybody match, proceed, step up this.
And yet…
Fourteen days back Tonga were sending 14 attempts against New Zealand. The screen of the champions at setting away the much struggle of South Africa at Yokohama throw a shadow over the other pretenders to their throne, while the comparison between tournament proper and a warm-up game isn’t entirely accurate.
Neither was the Jones smile a permanent fixture. After England had given away a needless penalty for offside following a restart after Maro Itoje along with Billy Vunipola attempted something unnaturally funky, the huge screens at the corner of their Sapporo Dome revealed a close-up of the Australian two thumping the table facing him with mute fury.
When it was reminiscent of the moment when among his predecessors, Martin Johnson, was captured nearly punching a hole in his leg following a Danny Care transgression at Dublin a few years before, it exemplified too the face Jones reveals to his own players behind closed doors might not always be understated.
Johnson’s own reign as England coach had been finished by a World Cup campaign that fell apart rapidly after a introductory match, that period a win over Argentina from Dunedin.
Jones understands that, such as Johnson, his period at the helm will be judged by what happens on the greatest stage of all. It is possible to win the Six Nations and you can lose them. Fail in a World Cup and also you go – as Stuart Lancaster did after 2015′s calamity since Johnson did in the Wake of both 2011.
Johnson’s regime ended jumping off a ferry to Auckland Creek, the final of many moments of scandal. Lancaster’s was downright holed if a combination of off-field indiscipline and familiar injury denied him the chance to bring Tuilagi straight back into the fold, with all that happened later with Sam Burgess coming into his place along with a settled rear line being reshuffled to adapt him.
So Jones will count himself fortunate that he has Tuilagi not just back but looking leaner and more powerful than he ever has in also the power of some wrecking-ball, a bulldozer using the speed of a sports car and an England jersey.
Tonga and they attracted the muscle and the attitude, just as everyone expected, respectively. Anthony Watson and ben Youngs were both stopped as though they had run into real bollards. The open-side flanker Zane Kapeli of Tonga, reversed at startling pace vunipola, who goes backwards as frequently as Johnson did as a player.
Tuilagi shows evident love for such fire. He also gets the weaponry.
His very first attempt arrived with a thump, the spin and two thumps of a wrestler. His second came when the Tongan defence was sucked into his dummy run and finished with a supportive line to the area left behind.
World Cups are obtained by groups but garlanded hitting at their summit. Moments and large displays decide the matches although It is possible to cruise through a number of the group stage.
Tuilagi has consistently had the capability to be a player like that and England will want him to be. In a team based around power and its application he’s its embodiment.
He would have had a hat-trick had replacement Henry Slade taken the ball and maybe not shown a rustiness to contact deep along with his team-mate cantering at the Tongan 22 on his left . Slade and Elliot Daly had the same difficulty with ruthlessness when a second opportunity opened up into the corner that was left, one of 14 handling mistakes made by the guys.
Jones was eager to point out later that England have played 160 minutes of Test rugby without conceding a try, less to underline that those games were against teams who few expect to escape the band point in Japan was pushed to one side.
With the equally spirited yet restricted USA to come on Thursday at Kobe, England have time to pick up speed and direction. You get the feeling that a taskmaster, Jones, will enjoy the.
“Sometimes rugby’s similar to this,” he said later. “You go with all the best intentions to be sharp, you have got an image in mind that says you are going to play some rugby and it doesn’t wind up like this.
“We weren’t sharp now, but what I enjoyed was that the attitude of our own players. The great thing was we revealed no frustration.”
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