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Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode
By
Andy Goode
England are always in the fight under Steve Borthwick but the head coach has to take accountability for repeatedly failing to land a knockout blow and this weekend was the worst example yet.
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Aside from the runaway victory over Japan and nine-point defeat in Scotland, the other 11 of England’s last 13 Tests have all been decided by a margin less than a converted try and they’re developing a worrying habit of not being able to close games out.
With a lead of eight points and only 18 minutes remaining, the decision to take off both halfbacks against the All Blacks on Saturday was clearly a mistake. That might be easy to say in hindsight but I said it at the time and it’s a point I’ve made previously.
Eddie Jones made the error of taking Marcus Smith off just after the hour mark against Scotland in 2022, England turning a seven-point lead into a defeat, and Borthwick has now done the same as his mentor.
Smith isn’t a kid anymore, he has 36 caps to his name and he isn’t a maverick, he’s more than capable of managing games at international level. He’s England’s first-choice fly-half and deserves the trust of his coach to see the job through.
There are only three reasons why you should be taking your first choice fly-half off. If he’s having a stinker, if you’re so far behind and you need a different spark or you’re so far in front that you think the game’s won, that’s fine. Otherwise, leave him on.
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The use of replacements has been a contentious subject before with some of them looking preordained but it isn’t normally such a major issue with a prop, a back-rower or an outside back, replacing your fly-half is completely different though.
As the fulcrum of the team, it takes a while to get into the game and adjust to the pace and you don’t have the same feel for what’s going on as the man who’s been on the pitch for the previous hour.
When you add to that the fact that George Ford has only played 86 minutes of rugby this season and hasn’t featured for over a month, it’s even harder to understand the decision.
Ford missed the penalty and drop goal to win the game, and missed the tackle on Mark Tele’a for the critical All Blacks try, but it’s his head coach rather than him who should be taking the flak.
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We’ve seen his defensive frailties before and he shouldn’t have gone so high in the tackle on Tele’a and you’d expect him to nail the penalty but the pass from Harry Randall made his job really difficult for the drop goal. He shouldn’t have been put in that position though.
The commentators suggested Borthwick would have seen it as a dream scenario when Ford came on to see out the game but that just highlights the flawed mindset he has at the moment.
England just needed to keep playing and they would have got over the line or landed that one final blow, you can’t just park the bus against the best teams in the world and England have been guilty of doing that in three straight Tests against New Zealand.
This was the most obvious example but England have scored just three points in the final half-hour of those three consecutive Tests against the All Blacks, three points in 90 minutes of rugby at the end of big Test matches.
Those are the championship minutes, the ones that decide who wins and loses and England are being far too conservative and conceding the momentum to their opponents.
New Zealand conceded 11 penalties and 21 turnovers on Saturday, not numbers you’d usually associate with them, and England had them where they wanted them but they couldn’t put them away.
Many of those errors were forced by England, who deserve a lot of credit for the performance they put in for the first hour, but a lot of the positives still came in defence or from individual brilliance.
Maro Itoje was immense, Chandler Cunningham-South put in some huge hits and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso dazzled once more but England’s bench failed to make an impact, whereas New Zealand’s took the game by the scruff of the neck.
As well as Damian McKenzie’s influence, Cam Roigard injected pace, Asafo Aumua was everywhere in the loose, the replacement props did a job at set piece and Patrick Tuipulotu had nine carries and six significant tackles.
There’s no doubt Borthwick has done some very good work with this England side over the past couple of years but he needs to hold his hands up, accept he’s made an error with his replacements in this one and adopt a less negative approach.
Most of the defeats he’s endured have been tight ones but a win ratio of 52 per cent simply isn’t good enough for an England head coach and a shift in mentality is needed to improve that.
I don’t think there’s any way he’d have taken Smith off for the final quarter against Japan or Australia so I think he’s guilty of paying the All Blacks too much respect and paid the price for shutting up shop.
Who knows what the dynamic is like behind the scenes between fly half and head coach but you’d like to think Smith is spitting feathers at being replaced at that stage of the game when he’s the main man and had led his side into position to win it.
I’m not suggesting he should be ranting and raving to Borthwick but hopefully he’ll be able to make the point that he deserves to be given the trust to see games out and steer his team home.
It’s a shame because you don’t get many good opportunities to beat the All Blacks and this is undoubtedly one that has gone begging, now the pressure is on against Australia and South Africa.
They’ll be expected to beat the former but if they don’t beat the latter before presumably getting past Japan, it’ll be a return of two from four this autumn with wins over just the 10th and 14th ranked sides in the world and that’s below par by anyone’s standards.
Watch the exclusive reveal-all episode of Walk the Talk with Ardie Savea as he chats to Jim Hamilton about the RWC 2023 experience, life in Japan, playing for the All Blacks and what the future holds. Watch now for free on RugbyPass TV
It is getting really frustrating with some of the selection calls. Have been willing for some time now to give SB the benefit of the doubt, but they just felt like real schoolboy errors tbh. England did better than I thought they would given it's a first hit-out, but their back three and pack must be so frustrated with just not getting enough quality ball from the centres. Clearly Alex Mitchell is missed, and a creative centre is needed, which has been the issue for a loooooooong time now.
England are a lot better side than they were last year. You can’t knock the defence. The intercept isn’t luck- the rush kind of forces it. So that’s a try for Smith but check out the second kiwi try. I’ve watched it a few times now. Smith had to scramble after a rush to tackle. The entire England defence was on the wrong side of the break down which meant smith should not have gone in gang busters as that extra body would have stopped the move. England will get it right but I agree if Aus and Boks win England should throw the cheque book at someone like Jake White or Franco Smith. 2 years is enough time to prepare for a WC.
England conceded three tries. There defence was poor. And they only scored one (intercept) try. So their much lauded attack was also poor.
England are worse than they were last year.
There are two fundamental - but linked - problems at play. Both involved Borthwick and his limitations.
1. SB is primarily conservative & defense-minded . He has never - as a player or a coach - demonstrated any understanding of intelligent attacking play. Rather, he adheres to the old school (and hopelessly outdated) 'bang it up the middle, take contact, go to ground; rinse, repeat - and then box kick'. That simply won't win test matches against the top sides today.
2. Richard Wigglesworth is not a good attack coach - yet Borthwick insists on keeping him in that role. England need someone with an understanding of modern attacking rugby (change the point of attack constantly; cut unexpected angles - preferably from deep; pace, precision and power).
Quite why England let Nick Evans go from his brief tenure is inexplicable (and as ever with Borthwick and the RFU, unexplained). An urgent call - backed by plenly of cash - should be made to him or Sam Vesty.
Otherwise ? Another 2 - 3 years of the same failures.
Completely and utterly agree mate. The whole George Ford kick substitution issue pales into significance compared to the issue that we didn't get anywhere near the bloody tryline except with an interception. Our attack is nonexistent. If we're only getting a maximum of 3 points on an entry to the red zone it doesn't matter who's on the damn bench! Borthers and Wigglesworth spent their careers trotting after kicks and taking set pieces, that's how they think rugby should be played. The scoreline was incredibly flattering, England were poor.
If i recall re Evans it was only a temporary situation but he did come out and state he had some "differences" with SB over attacking philosophy after the six nations.
I think #2 is a far more salient point than #1.
Conservative, physical, defence-oriented rugby can absolutely still win test matches (look at the 2019-21 Boks) but you absolutely need to be able to turn it on in attack (as SA could and still can).
Wigglesworth should feel massively guilty every time he picks up his paycheque.
He’s 100p right. Halfbacks aren’t a position you should change with 10min to go, or whatever it was. Players need a chance to get a feel for the game, especially in those positions. Give them at least 25min or don’t change them.
Yep
Funny how different standards are applied to different coaches.
Eddie Jones was fired, with a 73% win record (highest of any England coach ever) and an RWC final appearance in 2019. AFAIK all England coaches with lower win ratios than the Borthwick number (52%) were let go in less than two years (including Robinson, Ashton, Green). Borthwick's 2 year anniversary is next month, and there seems to be no discussion about whether he is the right leader. With him it seems that everyone has infinite patience.
Where are the vitriolic attacks and calls for termination of the coach (looking at you Clive Woodward)? I guess it's not about track records, but about whether someone is personally liked or disliked.
Borthers should go. He hasn't got what it takes. England's defence was the only thing we had going for us with Felix Jones and Borthers couldn't keep him. Set piece is ok. Our attack is AWFUL and he's shown zero sign of trying to do anything about it.
I think the issue is that Jones had some goodwill left after his first two years and WC final before he lost the plot and **** the bed at the end of 2022 autumn series.
Borthwick inherited a mess got us to a semi n the WC but has not kicked on his recent track record is pretty dismal but the staff churn is still in evidence and he has appointed an attack coach who was predominantly a kicking 9 all his career and so far our attack is ponderous and blunt.
The same players in their clubs can and do play an attack oriented, heads up game, the try we scored was despite WW as Smith made the break with Furbank and IFW running good support lines.
I cannot see SB removing or moving WW as it would reflect on him so we are likely stuck with this set up as even if Vesty were appointed he would still be in a strait jacket as SB seems to like and old school type of style as stated by TT above.
( Now watch WW prove me wrong on Saturday...)
The fact that so many rugby pundits agree on the fact that subbing Smith for ford was a monumental error by Borthwick, tells its own tale.
This England team are in part a reflection of Borthwicks own character, rather conservative, and not prone to averse risk taking, in fact rather bland and non descript.
Given that the Japan game must be seen as a banker, anything less than wins against Australia and SA will rightly be considered abject failure.
I'm flabbergasted that our pundits are so obsessed with a poor substitution and have failed to notice the only time we got anywhere near the tryline was an interception. England have no attack. It's a shambles and it's exactly what I've always expected from Borthers and the Wiggler.
The inability to score tries is often due to the 13, Slade, who has little pace, does not throw a dummy or side step so he NEVER will get behind the opposition line. Why Slade is viewed as brilliant defeats me when his attacking skills are not there. As for Ford, he should not be on the bench or in the team, cannot tackle, cannot make a break and is just a kicker (a poor one at that).
It's got nothing to do with Slade.
It doesn't matter who you put in what shirt, they have no attacking gameplan except chasing kicks. The whole backline is muddled and static.
He is dead right,dngland bottled it,shut up shop,stopped playing,whats more concerning is an inability to score trys,the attack is very poor,compare that to all blacks who look threatening every time they get the ball,and they scored 3 trys to englands lucky intercept,england will win some games kicking 3 pointers,but yee wont beat the big boys playing like that.