Flood calls on errant English to unite and make amends

No 10 hoping team’s off-field woes will have a galvanising effect

OH to have been a fly on the wall in the England hotel in the last few days. More nonsense to deal with, more dysfunctional behaviour and hassle, more media asking more questions about more stories.

The other day, Mark Cueto said it was all overblown and that the boys were entitled to a pint and a laugh and, in doing so, he made himself a contender for the World Missing The Point Championship of 2011. Yesterday, in as diplomatic a language as he could muster, Toby Flood disagreed with his team-mate and, by doing so, added to the suspicion that this England squad is split on the business of dwarves and mystery blondes and chambermaids and personal responsibility and the way the media have reported the various crises in the camp.

“I think Mark’s point is valid to a degree,” said Flood of Cueto’s theme that too much has already been made of events that largely took place three weeks ago. “There has been a lot written about it. However, we’re at a World Cup and there’s a lot more press, there’s a lot more going on, there’s going to be 25 things to write about. You stand by what you do as a person, you stand and you have to be accountable for what happens in life. We understand that things have happened, things that were not really what we wanted to do over here. Our first intention was not to go out and do X. However, we deal with it as a squad and unite behind each other and understand that sometimes when somebody is suffering it’s important to rally round them. Mark is obviously frustrated that this has rumbled on but it has, so we have to deal with it. You get to write whatever you want and say whatever you want, that’s your job. This is not what we wanted to do as a squad and we sit down and deal with it. A time and a place draws you into uniting behind each other. You have to unite for the greater good.”

Flood is one of England’s brighter players, a thoughtful voice amid so much craziness. He has been sitting on the bench for much of this World Cup and yet he has been a thorough professional. He doesn’t expect any praise for that, but he’s been a proper team player nonetheless. There is a debate going on within England circles now about Wilkinson versus Flood, about the old master who has lost his touch and the Leicester Tiger who made things happen against Scotland and who, ultimately, helped win the match at Eden Park with, firstly, a decision to go to touch with a penalty instead of to the posts and, secondly, to go wide with his pass to Chris Ashton in the game’s pivotal play.

In a couple of minutes, Flood managed to undo Scotland in a way Wilkinson never looked like achieving. “All I can do is put my hand up when I get the opportunity,” said Flood, yesterday. “If I get 78 minutes or if I get two minutes I just come on and I try to do what I can. You sit there and appreciate the game for what it is when you’re on the touchline, you’re taking mental notes for half time and making mental notes for when you come on and that’s it. I can’t suddenly storm on to the pitch and make it 16 players against 15. I have to sit there and wait for my opportunity to get on and that’s basically all I can do.”

He’s not the mangement, he says. He can’t influence their thinking with words. “You can slip notes under the door when they’re having selection meetings,” he smiles, but it’s not going to do any good. “It’s about getting on with what you’ve been given. If you get 10 minutes, you get 10 minutes, if you get 70 you get 70 and you’re grateful.”

Flood was responsible for the key moment against Scotland, the play that gave England their victory. He downplays his own role in it now, but it was significant and, by rights, it should take him into the team to play France at the weekend. Clearly, Flood is in better form than Wilkinson right now. “Against Scotland, I felt it was the right call to go to the corner leading up to the try and we went there with a gameplan, I felt there was an opportunity. I probably went at the line a bit too hard and backed myself into a corner but, luckily for me, Scotland jammed in and we threw it long and we scored. These things happen. I was fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time. I have no doubt that any other player in our backline could have done the same thing.”

France next, then. The battle of the misfits. “I’m not going to get over-awed by it, I’m just going to stay as dull as I normally am,” said Flood, who was then grilled on Wilkinson and his history with the French, his tremendous record against them. “You never wish anybody to be injured and, by all intents and purposes, Jonny’s going to be fine, he’s in a strong position, the scans on his injury have come back well and he’s happy. We’ll see where we are. We’ve got an understanding of France. It looks as if they are in disarray now, but I’ve seen teams in disarray before and when they face England they suddenly start playing for one another and it’s a very dangerous thing. It’s not my decision who plays [at 10 for England].

“You want to be selected on current form, you don’t want to be selected because eight years ago you were outstanding. At the same time you understand that some people have that ability in a side [a psychological hold over an opposition] and certainly Jonny was phenomenal that day in Paris when he kicked them out of the tournament [in the World Cup quarter-finals in 2007 as well as doing for them four years earlier in Sydney] and that’s definitely on his side of the bargain, something that’s weighted towards him. He has that history of doing it [against France].”

That said, England have been average so far in the World Cup. They have begun slowly in matches, against Scotland in particular. “Our starts have been poor. As a squad we have to deal with that. Our starts have been rubbish. We have to understand that we have to go out and play. We can’t have the body language that we had at the weekend. Things were not quite right. We’re walking back. We’re not quite there. International football should never be like that, especially against Scotland and even more so against France”

Does anybody know how to get England cranked up from the first whistle, Flood was asked. “If you did you’d be one hell of a coach. It’s how you start. We’re pretty forthright at saying to one another, ‘Look we can’t be like this’. The classic thing is at half-time when a side jogs off. As a kid you’re taught to do that just because it sends the right message to the opposition team.”

It’s not kids’ stuff any longer, though. France on Saturday with Flood at 10, if there is any logic in the England management team. Sometimes it takes a lot to give up your icons, but surely this is the time and Eden Park is the place. Wilkinson is a shadow of his former self, Flood is the man in form. “All I can do is put my hand up,” he says. He did that on Saturday. Put his hand up and sent Scotland home.