Wayne Barnes has been laying down the law with the England squad this week after a high penalty count in the opening three rounds contributed to the champions relinquishing their title early. Having cancelled an 11-point deficit against Wales in Cardiff to level in the last round, three offences in nine minutes punctured the comeback and raised the prospect of a bottom-half finish.
England, who contacted Barnes – the game’s most experienced Test referee – after conceding 42 penalties in three matches, face the unbeaten France at Twickenham on Saturday and while Les Bleus have not won a tournament match at the ground since 2005, they are buoyed by the performance of a reserve side in the Autumn Nations Cup final in December when England needed extra-time to prevail after trailing for most of the match.
“We need to sort out our discipline,” the England defence coach, John Mitchell, said. “It means greater education and awareness: we do not want to stop playing on the edge or being physical but we have to be cleverer and smarter. It is a feeling thing and we have had Wayne Barnes and Matthew Carley [another English Test referee] at training this week, refereeing what they saw and explaining why they made a decision.”
England’s chief transgressor in Cardiff was the second-row Maro Itoje who gave away five penalties, more than one-third of the total. “He is colossal, one of the most destructive footballers in the world,” Mitchell said. “We want him to continue that and it is about understanding where we need to clear up.”
The flanker Tom Curry said France – who have lost one of their past eight Six Nations matches, their best run since winning the tournament in 2010 – were the perfect opponents for England as they looked to finish the campaign with two victories.
“France could not come at a better time and they are the ideal opponent because we know we are going to have to bring our A game,” he said.
“Our discipline has not been good enough and there is an element of individual responsibility. We have the chance to fix things. A couple of games does not define you as a team or where you are going. It is never going to be up all the way or perfect, but the growth we have is exciting.”
England do not expect France to sucker them into an open, unstructured game. “They are focused on a long kicking game and attacking lineouts,” Mitchell said.
“Some people have a perception of French players as being expressive, flamboyant and keeping the ball alive. They have that ability, but this very successful French team is conservative in that it tries to win the kicking game and waits for opportunities before pouncing.”
France sat out the last round after their match with Scotland in Paris was postponed because of an outbreak of Covid-19 in their camp. “There is no hangover from that and we will not be using it as an excuse,” said their defence coach, Shaun Edwards. “Athletes face all kinds of challenges every week and we are super motivated to get a result at Twickenham against a side who played some good rugby in Cardiff.”
France need to win to keep track with the leaders, Wales, who named their team early for the match against Italy in Rome on Saturday. Their head coach, Wayne Pivac, has made two changes from the side that defeated England with Cory Hill replacing Adam Beard in the second row and Gareth Davies taking over at scrum-half from the injured Kieran Hardy.
The starting lineup share 969 caps with only five of the players yet to reach 50 caps. “Three from three is a great start, but there are plenty of work-ons,” said Pivac. “We are ready to get out there on Saturday and have trained really well.”
Wales team to play Italy on Saturday: Liam Williams (Scarlets); L Rees-Zammit (Gloucester), G North (Ospreys), J Davies (Scarlets), J Adams (Cardiff Blues); D Biggar (Northampton), G Davies (Scarlets); W Jones (Scarlets), K Owens (Scarlets), T Francis (Exeter), C Hill (Cardiff Blues), A W Jones (Ospreys, capt), J Navidi (Cardiff Blues), J Tipuric (Ospreys), T Faletau (Bath). Replacements: E Dee (Dragons), R Carre (Cardiff Blues), L Brown (Dragons), J Ball (Scarlets), A Wainwright (Dragons), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), C Sheedy (Bristol), W Halaholo (Cardiff Blues).