Power, Points or Pride?

England struggled to their first win on their tour of Australia without scoring a try for the second game in succession, while the Saxons in America are scoring for fun.

I am not suggesting the standard of opposition is comparable – Martin Johnson’s men are clearly fighting a much harder battle than the second-level competition in the Churchill Cup – but what confuses me is the mentality of the backlines who line-up with Red Roses on their chests.

Almost all of the Guinness Premiership sides were lambasted this season for negative play – tries were coming at a premium and tennis-like-kicking was a virus infecting the core of the game.

Coaches and players blamed the laws at the breakdown, and indeed when these changed and the sun came out at the beginning of the year, some exciting rugby returned to our domestic game.

The very same players who had flourished at the end of the season, whether to win titles or keep their teams up, must have carried this form onto the planes. However, it seems somewhere between London and Perth this was sucked out.

Shontayne Hape has clearly been ear-marked by Martin Johnson, and the England management, as the man to unlock opposition defences. The rugby league convert showed a powerful step and devastating lines for Bath, yet the rest of his England team mates apparently don’t see the need use him or play with the ball outside the fly-half’s channel.

This leaves the possibility of the ball reaching the Premiership’s highest scorer - theoretically England’s greatest threat - almost nil, as Chris Ashton is reduced to a defensive role against the well-supplied Australian wings; while Ben Foden has either been told to kick whenever he gets the ball or he is too intimidated to jink into Jason Robinson-esque runs which he has built his reputation on.

Meanwhile the Saxons are running from deep, expressing themselves and providing a much better brand of rugby to create a better spectacle.

Yes, they clearly have less pressure on them, and yes the defences opposing them are more prone to leaking, but explain 19-year old James O’Conner or Quade Cooper who won his 11th cap at the weekend, as well as the other Australian up-starts who appear to play with the freedom of park-touch rugby on the ultimate Test stage.

It is not a problem which has suddenly emerged this summer but has been a consistent issue for England. Jonny Wilkinson, Charlie Hodgson and now Toby Flood do not play flat as they do at their clubs, and consequently the rest of the midfield is nullified.

Whether this is fear of defeat or the team orders of the management, we cannot be sure. Though what is certain is unless something changes fans will switch off and England’s current run of hardly being able to scrape together a Test win, let alone a series or competition victory, will continue indefinitely.