Tom English: ‘The physical advantage that Romania held was chilling’

It’s a little premature to be climbing to the rooftops to acclaim the rise of the minnows in this World Cup, however tempting it might be. For a start, none of the smaller nations have actually won a game as yet, though several have played superbly. Tonga, for instance, were heroically defiant in the second half on the opening night against the All Blacks. When you consider that on the last two occasions Tonga played the Kiwis they got crushed 91-7 and 102-0 then what they delivered on Friday was a major step forward. Namibia had excellent spells against Fiji, Japan had France in trouble at one stage and then, of course, there was Romania in Invercargill.

We can’t ever know for sure what would have happened had Romania not made some bizarre substitutions late in the game, but in the eyes of this observer, that gallant Romanian loss would have turned out to be a historic Romanian victory had they not sabotaged their own effort by substituting their hooker and captain, Marius Tincu, and his hard-scrummaging tighthead prop, Paulica Ion, at precisely the moment that Romania had hit the front and had Scotland in enormous trouble.

Tincu and Ion were outstanding. Their physicality was something that Scotland could not handle, so when they went off that stiff breeze that was felt around Rugby Park was probably brought about by a collective exhalation of the Scottish pack. Their relief and joy must have been unconfined as soon as the two destroyers jogged off the park. There was no injury to either, it seems. Tincu was full of chat in the aftermath and said there was nothing wrong with him, And they were certainly not running out of gas. He reckoned he was still full of running and mischief and mayhem at the time he was taken off. I asked Steve McDowall, the great Kiwi hard-man of yesteryear and now the assistant coach at Romania, what the thinking was and without saying so in as many words, the reaction was there was probably no thinking at all, that the decision was made outwith his control and that it was wrong.

What was chilling was the overwhelming physical advantage Romania enjoyed and the fact that Scotland’s next opponents, Georgia, are said to be even bigger and even more powerful than Romania. Andy Robinson can put a lot of fixes in place for Wednesday night. He can change the personnel, he can alter the tactics, he can improve the focus, but what he can’t do is change the body shapes of some of his forwards so that they can match the colossal Georgians in what might well descend into another grim battle for every inch. Georgia on his mind, indeed.

Only two games have been played in Pool B but already a pattern is emerging, a sign that this thing is wide open, that there is no dominant team and no favourite to emerge. In the hours after Scotland pulled off a feat of escapology against Romania that would have had Harry Houdini standing and applauding, England and Argentina battered themselves half to death in Dunedin. It was a grindathon, a game that you could only have appreciated had you spent a good portion of your life in the front row of a scrum or in the midst of a ruck, shut away from the light and the finer things in rugby.

Andy Robinson wasn’t exactly in a position of strength last night, but nothing that he would have seen in Dunedin would have troubled him unduly. Given the way his own team played in Invercargill he wouldn’t have been of a mind to say it loud, but England and Argentina looked decidedly average, one-dimensional and eminently beatable. If – and it remains an “if” – he can sort out the Scottish scrum, maul and their inability to focus hard for 60 minutes, let alone 80, then there is no reason, even in his hour of huge uncertainty surrounding the wherewithal of Robinson’s team, to think the competition is too hot for Scotland in this pool. Quite clearly, it is not.

England, by their standards, are a poor side that is poorly coached, that is locked into a particularly brainless strain of conservatism. Against Argentina, a side that began with a 34-year-old at loosehead and a 38-year-old at hooker and later brought on to the field a 35-year-old at tighthead, England’s gameplan was spectacularly ill-judged. In willingly engaging in a war of attrition with the Pumas, Martin Johnson needs his head examined. Instead of trying to move an ageing pack about the park and using the pace and strength of his backline, England allowed themselves to get drawn into an arm-wrestle and they almost paid the price for it.

Johnson’s England have problems. For a rugby union with all the riches in the world, they are feeble right now. Under Johnson they have a win record that is a fraction over 50 per cent, a terrible return and an indictment of his regime. But at least they won.

Argentina weren’t exactly impressive either. They have one or two backs who can create but, generally, everything goes through the forwards and those forward are not what they used to be. They are older and some need putting out to pasture. They’re a fairly pedestrian side that Scotland has already beaten twice on their home patch.

It might seem ludicrous to say it, but there is an opportunity in this pool for Scotland. At their best, they can win it and make a quarter-final against France as opposed to New Zealand. They have little to fear but themselves and their propensity to take their foot off the gas for long periods when it needs to be flat to the floor. Within the squad they’re calling yesterday a wake-up call. Fair enough, but it’s only a wake-up if they drag themselves out of their torpor and get on with business. The blessing is that they still have business to get on with.