Roger Alton Roger Alton

England’s rugby World Cup has disaster written all over it

[Getty Images] 
issue 19 August 2023

England’s preparation for the upcoming rugby World Cup is beginning to look like a slow-motion car crash, after two pathetic performances against Wales. Those of a betting disposition might want to bung a bit on Argentina muscling England aside when they meet in their first pool encounter on 9 September. The Pumas aren’t world beaters, though they have had a fantastic recent run under new coach Michael Cheika, beating New Zealand, England and Australia. But England are on a seemingly irreversible downward trajectory and are becoming the most unloveable rugby side in the world, lacking any spark, method or much creativity, just a wearying kick-and-chase predictability.

Maybe the coaching team is holding back the real England and will unveil it once the World Cup proper begins: if so, that seems a bit risky. Revealingly, in the interviews after last weekend’s drab and wholly unlikely two-point victory over Wales at HQ, there came from the England camp a certain jolly pride that they had at least started firing in the last 20 minutes or so, whereas from Wales’s coach, Warren Gatland, there was nothing but barely controlled fury that his team had failed to secure the victory they should have cruised.

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