Six Nations: England aim for defensive improvements after loss to All Blacks

Rieko Ioane battles with George Furbank and Tom Curry at Twickenham. Photo / Photosport

Centre Henry Slade insists England’s players are now on the same page in defence after what he admits was a “rushed” transition under Joe El-Abd in the Autumn Nations Series campaign.

After Felix Jones’s shock departure last August, Oyonnax head coach El-Abd was brought in to continue the Irishman’s “hammer” system, but had a rough start in the Autumn Nations Series campaign. England conceded 109 points across four games - losing 24-22 to the All Blacks and 42-37 to Australia – with opponents frequently using their ultra-aggressive approach against them to engineer line breaks.

With the senior players being given more responsibility to lead the system, Slade believes England’s players are now far more aligned going into their opening Six Nations game away to Ireland this weekend.

“I think there’s definitely much better clarity in terms of what we are getting after,” Slade said. “There’s been a lot more emphasis on players also helping out with reviewing it and leading it as well and that’s only helped us. Joe has his own ideas and what he wants to do and there has been input from some of us as players in terms of how we do it as well.

“We have had a lot of good conversations with each other and it feels like everyone is on the same page. We know what we are doing. That’s a real step forward. Him having that extra bit of time is only going to be good because it was pretty rushed the last time he came in. There’s a lot more clarity on that front.”

It is understood they will rein back their all-or-nothing approach in the Six Nations, but Slade maintains they will continue to take the initiative with their aggression. “We’re always trying to evolve the [defence] and find ways to take it forwards and improve things,” Slade said. “We still want to be aggressive and we still want to be in the opposition’s face and putting skills under pressure and going hard. We still want to be going off the line and doing some damage there.

“What we were doing before was very hit or miss. We’re still a line-speed team and we’re still going after players, but hopefully we can give ourselves every opportunity to keep making these tackles and keep staying alive.

“There’s so many moving parts to it and everything’s got to be right on to get it right. There’s a lot of small areas where if one thing’s not right, everything else suffers. What you saw in there wasn’t just one thing that wasn’t making things happen. Every now and again, there was something that wasn’t quite right, which led to everything else, a knock-on effect. It’s hard to say exactly what the problem was, because it was probably different most times.”

Slade has been retained in a midfield combination with Ollie Lawrence and first-five Marcus Smith for the eighth successive test. While England’s attack was clunky at times during the autumn, Slade is convinced they are now tuned into each other’s wavelengths.

“With Marcus being such a good attacker himself, if he sees something he goes and you have to be connected enough to just go with him,” Slade said. “Obviously he plays and attacks a lot differently to a lot of other 10s, but it goes back to the previous point of continued selection; the more you get to play with him and train with him the more you get used to it. He can do some unbelievable things, you just have to be prepared to drop what you thought was going on and just be all in on that moment.

“This campaign actually I was thinking it feels a bit more natural us coming in and picking up where we left off, rather than starting afresh. It feels like that in this Six Nations everyone has come in and got in sync way quicker than normal.”