Saturday 22 November 2014 16:02, UK
Will Greenwood says that England have no choice but to beat Samoa on Saturday, but he has concerns about their midfield.
England are looking for a morale-boosting victory following a run of five straight defeats including two losses at home; albeit it to New Zealand and South Africa.
Stuart Lancaster has made six changes for Samoa, handing George Ford his first Test start at fly-half and moving Owen Farrell to inside centre. The two have gone through the junior ranks playing together but Will Greenwood has some concerns about making it work at the very highest level.
“They came through the age groups playing together where they looked great and very confident,” said Greenwood on Sky Sports News HQ.
“But that was at U20 level. I think this is an experiment that England want to look at in terms of the run up to next year. Can they recreate the form they showed at junior level in the senior set-up?
“One of the problems is that every time you have change you need to learn about players and their little idiosyncratic movements that they have out on the field – everyone is slightly different.
Whenever you have change it is very difficult to hit the ground running and I think England find themselves hoping, rather than knowing that things will go well
“Whenever you have change it is very difficult to hit the ground running and I think England find themselves hoping, rather than knowing that things will go well.
“With Brad Barritt in there as well, as a midfield they may take my world record! That is in 2005 in the Third Lions test I was on the field in the slowest international midfield since 1884! There was Ronan O’Gara at No.10, Stephen Jones at 12 and me at 13. Our three-man 100m relay time would have been about 65 seconds.
“These guys on Saturday are also lacking in the out and out speed department but whilst we say speed is crucial, you never see Dan Carter go full tilt, you never see Bernard Foley go full tilt. You don’t necessarily need pace, pace, pace in the midfield. You need the right depth and the right alignment and that is what we want to see.”
Samoa are ranked way below England and Greenwood says that nothing but a convincing victory will do for England.
Back to winning ways
“Yes this is a must win against Samoa,” added the 2003 World Cup winner.
“Whenever you look to play against sides who are ranked below you in the world and you are at home – then you would expect to win.
“I think there is a bit of panic; mild alarm within the camp in terms of those five straight losses but more importantly those two defeats at home. In both games they had opportunity to perform better.
“England will want to put the brakes on this run of defeats and in reality and they really need to get that confidence and rhythm back into the side.”
Watch England take on Samoa this Saturday, live on Sky Sports 2 from 6.30pm
