England are ready to be uncomfortable on Thursday morning in Japan’s pre-eminent rugby city, where they will have to cope with humidity, limited preparation and fresh, fired-up opposition. Well, they certainly think they are ready. They hope they are.
Time will tell if England can handle the rare inconvenience of a four-day turnaround between matches, in alien conditions, as they confront the USA in their second World Cup Pool C fixture — chasing the target of another bonus-point victory.
Even a bullish Eddie Jones can offer no guarantees. The last time England went into a match under-cooked, to practise for this very scenario, they took a long time to get up to speed.
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England have prepared for what will be testing conditions in Kobe when they play the USA
England coach Eddie Jones hopes for another bonus-point win against their bullish opponents
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Last November, after a deliberately abbreviated training week, a line-up captained by George Ford and featuring double-figure starting changes from the previous weekend ran into an ambush against Japan at Twickenham. They trailed 15-10 after a faltering first-half display, before rallying after the break to win 35-15.
This time, a side led by Ford and showing 10 changes from the team who started against Tonga in Sapporo on Sunday will go into this contest against the USA after one meaningful training session.
Asked about the first-half problems against the Japanese 10 months ago, Jones said: ‘We could have the same problems. It’s difficult having a quick turnaround. There’s no quick solution to it but we feel it’s maybe more psychological than physical.
The Big Match Essential for England’s Rugby World Cup showdown with USA on Wednesday
‘The players have had experience of a four-day turnaround. We did that specifically for Japan. How do you prepare in a short time? It’s about getting some energy back in them, making them feel good.
‘They’ve been out and had some Kobe beef, they’ve done a bit of recovery and we’ve had a short, sharp run.’
Playing two games in such close proximity is not ideal for England, but it shows that the tournament schedule is more balanced these days. In the past, the weaker teams had to cram their fixtures into a congested schedule while the leading nations had their matches spaced apart. Now, there is more fairness. Not before time.
England have just a four-day turnaround from their opening win against Tonga in Pool C
Ford suggested that he actually relishes cutting back on the pre-match detail and getting back down to playing without delay.
‘In a funny sort of way, when you’ve only got three or four days until your next game, it helps things,’ said the No 10.
‘You get right down to the nitty-gritty of the plan. Sometimes, if you’ve got a full week or eight, nine days, you can get into a bit of a cycle of talking too much and finding things to practise or talk about. You’ve got to get down to it straight away.
‘I thought we did that pre-Japan (last November). I just think that, for whatever reason, we weren’t mentally there in the first 40 minutes to go and execute the plan.
‘Against a team like the USA, you can’t afford to do that. If you don’t have much time on the training field you’ve got to be definitely sharper mentally.’
George Ford said he relishes restricted training time and wants to get back to playing
England’s discomfort will extend beyond the turnaround time. The players are expecting to endure a ‘sweaty’ experience here, with humidity a major factor that could impact on their ability to maintain attacking pressure.
There were too many handling errors against the Tongans on Sunday and avoiding a repeat won’t be easy.
After training under the roof at Kobe Misaki Stadium on Wednesday, Joe Launchbury said: ‘It is a slippery ball compared to back home and pretty early on the grass was a bit greasy. One of the areas we want to impress tomorrow is our attack and keeping hold of the ball will be key.’
Ben Youngs, who will come off the bench to win a 91st cap, added: ‘One thing we need to improve is ball control, but judging by running around just now it will be pretty humid and slippy.
‘It didn’t take long for the ball to get covered in sweat, which is fun for us nines.’
England earned their first bonus-point win of the tournament in their 35-3 win over Tonga
England will win on Thursday, but they will also need to claim a bonus point and demonstrate that they are moving in the right direction, ahead of crunch encounters with Argentina and France.
Jones has no qualms about his team experiencing discomfort here.
Five years ago, when he was in charge of Japan, he brought the Brave Blossoms to Kobe and forced them out of their comfort zone. Having also coached Suntory Sungoliath in the Japanese Top League, the head coach was asked how he had fared on previous trips to this city.
‘Good and bad,’ he said. ‘I was just thinking about it the other day actually. We played here with Japan in the autumn of 2014.
‘We had two games against the Maori All Blacks and when we played them here we conceded 61 points, but there’s a bit of a story behind that.
USA present a different challenge all together as they are set to play their first Pool C game
‘We didn’t deliberately go out to get beaten, but we deliberately played a game away from our strengths to make a message to the team about how we were going to play. The next game we played, we got beaten by two points, to reinforce the point that we had to play to our strengths.
‘It doesn’t usually go well when you don’t play to your strengths.’ There are no end of strengths England can play to on Thursday. Their line-up bears a resemblance to the one Jones deployed in the home warm-up match against Wales, when England claimed an impressive 33-19 win.
The pack — with Billy Vunipola, Joe Marler and Tom Curry all making their second tournament starts — have sufficient clout to dominate the USA up front and provide a platform for Ford to unleash a vast array of firepower in the outside channels.
Despite the up-beat public response to their display against Tonga, behind the scenes England will have acknowledged their shortcomings: poor discipline in the first half and poor execution in the second. They will expect to be better. Maybe a bit of discomfort is what they need to ignite their World Cup campaign.
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