Six Nations 2014: England did not lose to France because of my replacements ...

It was no wonder that several players, notably Owen Farrell, fell prey to

cramp, or that Lancaster felt compelled to factor in the fatigue issue when

making his substitutions.

He said that it was “not an exact science”, and revealed that he based all his

decisions on intuition rather than GPS or other data.

“The replacements were not the reason we lost the game,” Lancaster said.

“The biggest reason was the start, when he gave away two tries and went down

16-3, and that is one hell of a mountain to climb.

“We used all our energy to get back and ran out of juice.

“I have seen substitutes work lots and lots of times. I have seen them

make a big impact on matches.

“I was certainly pleased with the impact all the substitutions made.

“A lot of ours were enforced, through injury for example to Jonny May.

“I thought Ben Morgan’s impact was very strong.

“It is not an exact science and if it was, it would be easy.

“I will make the substitutions next weekend the way I have always done –

based on my coach’s intuition, the way I see the game unfolding.”

Care had played only 46 minutes of rugby over the past month for Harlequins

after picking up two minor knocks.

Given that Dickson started all three Tests in the autumn, and has a more

accomplished tactical kicking game, it is easy to understand the desire to

get him on the field at some point.

Care, though, had been in his pomp.

What Lancaster has to rule on is just when a player has reached his peak of

physical output. That is the fine line he has to call.

Billy Vunipola was replaced by Morgan at No8 in the 66th minute.

Even though he had been in rampaging form, his contributions were beginning to

wane and Morgan made several impressive contributions.

The front-row replacements, Mako Vunipola for Joe Marler, and Tom Youngs for

Dylan Hartley, had been made earlier in the piece.

A vital botched attacking line-out in the 64th minute had echoes of last

November’s match against the All Blacks, when England’s line-out crumbled

after Hartley gave way to Youngs.

Yet France had changed all three of their front row by the 50th minute. Those

reinforcements demanded a riposte in such a head-to-head contest.

Lancaster rejects the notion that he has a fixed plan in mind as to when he

will send players on, or conversely, that he instructs certain players to

give it their all for an hour in the knowledge that they will then be

substituted.

“You can’t conserve energy in a Test match,” he said.

“You want players to go flat out for the whole game. You have got to trust

your bench.

“You can’t have a predetermined plan. It was quite unfortunate that we

lost a player [Jonny May] so early in the game.

“France took a risk in having six forwards and only two backs. If they

had lost two backs what would they have done?

“You want to give yourself as many options as possible in the knowledge

that you can’t cover all bases.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts and maybes about any match. ”

Lancaster was adamant that dwelling on the replacement issue was to miss the

point.

“There is no internal debate in camp about it,” he added.

The head coach cited the need to take the kick-off cleanly – England’s mistake

led to France’s first try – to have a crisper strategy coming out of their

own 22 and to contest kicks better.

He did not refer to England’s scrum but four kicks were given away at that

phase.

England went through their recovery work on Monday ahead of resuming full

training ton Tuesday.

Lancaster said they intended to bottle their dejection and take it with them

to Murrayfield.

“It is important that there is a reaction from us and there will be a sense of

hurt and crossness there,” he said.

“That was, though, as good an attacking performance as we have put together in

a long time. We want to play with that intent and tempo.”

England

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Article source: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Rugby-Union-Crewe-amp-Nantwich-beat-weather/story-20553670-detail/story.html

Six Nations 2014: England did not lose to France because of my replacements ...