England need to focus on what they are good at before World Cup

First the good news. England have remembered how to play. The better news will be if they understand what they’ve got and what they are. Bin flashy notions of being the All Blacks. England are England and that is where they should stay to get a sniff of winning their own World Cup next autumn.

There can be a certain sniffiness in rugby culture which blinds us to the obvious. Understandably we want our teams to play the kind of game we want to see rather than what they are best at. Do you put 23 guys together and tell them how to play or is the skill in recognising how they best play?

There have been times – selectorially especially – this autumn when England have been all over the shop. However, on Saturday they got it right, recognising that a pack which won a penalty try against New Zealand and twice pushed the Springboks back over their line is quite a weapon. And it’s likely to get better.

Dylan Hartley is the best scrummaging hooker by some way and while Joe Marler and Davey Wilson have looked consistently close to top class this autumn, the addition of Alex Corbisiero, so destructive with the Lions in Australia, and a Dan Cole anywhere near the form he had before the neck injury, will provide a threat from the start with plenty to add from the bench. Take a pragmatic look around the rugby world and that’s hard to match.

Ditto the second row. The new, slimmer, mobile Dave Attwood has fulfilled the promise Martin Johnson saw four seasons ago and added to Courtney Lawes, a class act and twice the tackler who stopped tries against Australia, and Joe Launchbury, you have a trio of real second row talent to mix and match.

Attwood adds beef to the scrum; Launchbury is the athlete. A year ago England “couldn’t” play without Geoff Parling calling the lineout; today he’s probably fourth in the second row pecking order.

The back row? Time to stop looking for what England haven’t got – Steffon Armitage or a conventional fetcher – and appreciate what they have. Tom Wood, Chris Robshaw and a No8 such as Ben Morgan don’t have the balance of a more conventional back row – have England had a proper No7 since Neil Back? – but they are remarkably effective, particularly when Launchbury is alongside Lawes adding massively to the energy to the back five unit.

Half-backs? I don’t think the George Ford/Owen Farrell argument is over by a long chalk. Ford may have been the find of the autumn, but there is an argument that selection let Farrell down in that he was played when rusty and short of game time and then benched when form started to return. Can they play together? Probably not from the start but possibly for the last 20 minutes, which leaves us still pondering the predicament of England’s midfield and Saturday didn’t help.

A fit Manu Tuilagi answers one question but those looking to the Rec for a quick fix on the other won’t have got much from two touches and 17 minutes watching the Bath forwards run riot on Friday night. Clearly another Friday night in Cardiff in 10 weeks’ time will be too soon for Sam Burgess. Despite his obvious talents, those who have worked with code switchers know the enormous task ahead. Another 17 minutes off the bench against Italy might be more realistic.

That said, the big plus – apart from England’s set piece – from Saturday was the improved kicking game, particularly the burden Ben Youngs took on himself. Box kicks had enough time for a decent chase and Ford’s tactical kicking added more questions to those asked of Israel Folau the previous week by Jonny Sexton.

All of which brings us to the back three and one of the great selection conundrums of the autumn: what happened to Semesa Rokoduguni? One minute the Bath wing was top dog, the next he was on the M4 back to the Rec. Do you say that Anthony Watson is the answer or could Jack Nowell be back on that wing? And is Jonny May’s pace covering up deficiencies which often get exposed at Premiership level and will become more obvious to Test coaches when they look at the footage? The big plus is his kick chase. At the highest levels of sport real pace can embarrass, as it did to Quade Cooper, reviving England’s fortunes when guys like Folau, Bernard Foley and Adam Ashley-Cooper were finding indecently large holes in Fortress Twickenham.

You could argue that it was Mike Brown’s chip and Cooper’s dithering that settled the game. However, that key moment shouldn’t cloud the issues surrounding England’s full back.

Clearly Brown is not the No15 he was last season. Then everything came together and there weren’t many better in the world game. Now there are fumbles and predictability which is being punished by sides who have read England’s script. Might it be that when February and Cardiff come around and the selectors are still scratching their heads about needing another player with vision, they might remember the all-round game that Alex Goode once gave them in hours of similar need?