Simply not good enough

England continued to disappoint at Twickenham today, against a vastly superior New Zealand side, who could afford the luxury of a below par performance from fly-half Dan Carter. Carter, widely renown as the best in the business, was erratic with his kicking from hand and also missed several easy shots at goal (he got the more difficult ones though!). Having said that, his running game was particularly impressive. Standing flat, he received enough quick ball to be a constant threat to the England defence, and you always had the feeling the All Blacks could go up several gears if needed. But what did we learn from today's performance about the areas England need to improve upon.

Well it depends on your viewpoint. This was a definite improvement in some senses from last week; there was a greater intensity from the players on show today, but it is disappointing that it couldn't happen last weekend against an Argentina side who had come to mainly disrupt the English play. That was our big chance to impose ourselves on a game, but it very rarely, if ever, happened. Today showed a marked improvement in that area, but that was probably about it, to be honest. England were found lacking in quality and execution, especially at the breakdown area. Don't get me wrong, England did make a nuisance of themselves and disrupt some Kiwi ball, but England struggled when in possession to do anything meaningful with slow ball. As I said, Carter stood flat, unlike Wilkinson who was a lot deeper, making it more difficult for England to get across the gain line and create targets for the forwards, hence the ball coming back was slow. Vicious circle!

What can England do is the big question on the lips of supporters at the moment. There is a lot of talk about the players, the coaches, the infrastructure, and the long term development of the side filling the air, and here is my view on it all, and it starts with Martin Johnson, the team manager. Johnson is a man who is widely respected by much of the English public, but with no previous coaching experience, was he the right man to be given the job? Probably not, but Rob Andrew was very insistent and persuaded him to take it, even though Jonno had distanced himself from the role for those very reasons several times. But Johnson is the man in charge, he picks the team, and he is responsible for what happens with that team, and I have to question the long term plan, or if there is even a long term plan in place. Johnson has been in charge for nearly 18 months, squad and team selections have been fairly inconsistent and it seems like we are trying to pick a team to do a job on a week by week basis. However, we are instead falling further behind the opposition in terms of team spirit, leadership, continuity, quality and execution. They are words constantly used by coaches in rugby, and England seem to be lacking across the board.

The game plan also seems to be unclear. The players are like horses with blinkers on, not knowing whether to use their own initiative or not, not being instinctive enough, not looking outside the set moves and that must come down to the clarity of the plans laid out by the coaching staff.

Are we playing the best players is another point, raised quite rightly in my opinion. The two top teams in the English premiership supply one player between them to the England set up. Is that enough? Probably not. England need players playing well and used to winning. At the moment, we have an unclear game plan, and a squad of players which rotates for every match and no-one is sure of the direction we are taking. The issues are more than skin deep and there needs to be a complete re-think of the direction this team is taking. Playing New Zealand and Australia this autumn has shown us how far behind we actually are!

Dutch crash England party

The Netherlands cricket team turned up at a wet Lords yesterday afternoon for the opening of the T20 World Cup, with many thinking they were just there to make up the numbers against an English side brimming with confidence. How wrong we were!

The Netherlands, clad in their bright orange outfits, stood out as a team who were motivated to perform and not leave the field disappointed. A team mainly made up of amateurs, could not have seriously thought that they could make these professionals look no better your local pub team. In fact, it was the Dutch and their professional attitude which shone brightest on a damp night in St John's Wood to shock the majority of the crowd and leave Paul Collingwood stumped for words.

It could easily have been so different though. England started well, and at 100 for 0 after 11 overs, a score of 180+ was on the cards. Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright started positively and were scoring consistently, and in all honesty, there was no need for Bopara to try and heave his Essex team mate ten Doeschate over cow corner, but he tried and failed. With Pietersen out injured, Rob Key was down to come in at number 3, but Shah, Morgan and Collingwood all moved above him in the order, all then falling cheaply, and with Luke Wright holing out for 71, it left Key and returning wicket-keeper James Foster to stumble over the 160 mark. A disappointing finish to an innings, which saw only 14 fours and no sixes, and England possibly ruing the fact that big six hitters with IPL experience in Mascheranas and Napier were both sitting on the sidelines.

Despite the Netherlands regularly losing wickets, they kept hitting the big shots for four and six, keeping them ahead of the required run rate, and the Duckworth/Lewis rate, although even with steady rain, the umpires kept the players out there. Coming down to the last over, the Dutch needed seven to win. By now, the floodlights were shining brightly, and the crowd were getting very nervous. Broad was to bowl, and after fluffing a run out and catch off his own bowling, he then tried to throw the stumps down off the final ball, which would have given England the win by one run. Instead, the throw went wide with no field backing up, and the Dutch won courtesy of an over throw. This sparked wild scenes of celebration from the Dutch players, with small pockets of orange in the stands bouncing wildly, and no doubt the Dutch will enjoy their celebrations. And congratulations to them for having the belief that if they gave their all, you never know what might happen.

For England, this is a terribly sorry tale, and we can only hope that the weather stays away on Sunday for a crucial must win game against Pakistan at the Oval. Oh, and that KP is fit enough to play. England really thought they could make an impression in this T20 World Cup on home soil, and they have! But I don't think it's the impression we were all hoping for!