England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

While many will still be in disbelief that England were trailing come the final play of the match against the All Blacks given the position of strength they were in 20 minutes before, they nevertheless had a good chance to win the match at the death.

Despite having a scrum just metres from the 14-man All Blacks’ line, England fluffed their lines considerably, which resulted in replacement fly-half George Ford attempting a somewhat scrappy drop goal from 30 metres out only a few phases later.

This, former England scrum-half Ben Youngs believes, was a “very easy situation” which England somehow overcomplicated.

Speaking on his podcast For the Love of Rugby a day after result, England’s most-capped player explained how he thinks England’s back line should have set up to exploit their man advantage with All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown in the sin bin.

Youngs was, however, still in disbelief that England ever found themselves in that position in the first place having held a 22-14 lead in the final quarter, though this is now becoming a habit of Steve Borthwick’s side to find new ways to blow a lead.

“In my opinion, England should have never been at that point,” the Leicester Tigers scrum-half said. “At no point with 12 minutes to go, if you paused the game and said to everyone that it’s going to come down to a moment at the end, a five-metre scrum and a drop goal to win it, everyone would have gone ‘Nah, England will see this out.’ It should never have got to that point.

“Anyway, it did. The scrum, Anton Lienert-Brown is in the sin bin, so they’d lost a back, which means New Zealand had to defend it very differently. There was an overlap on either side, but England totally overcomplicated it and there was just no need. So what they did, they went for the scrum in the middle, you couldn’t ask for a better attacking position. We set up with George Ford and George Furbank behind the scrum, directly behind the scrum, and then we had the others on either side. It just didn’t need to be that complicated. What we should have done is stack on the left-hand side and have two players on the right side.

“As the scrum’s gone backwards, and it was a mess, Harry Randall’s done the right thing, he’s just trying to get the ball out. But as he’s got the ball, he bounces right, which would have been the easy thing because if it went backwards, we were stacked on the right and the left, he could have just picked them up. The winger couldn’t be there, Anton Lienert-Brown’s in the sin bin, you just throw it over the top for a try in the corner. But because we’re stacked behind, Rands swings right, Fordy and Furbank have swung left, he doesn’t realise that, he’s then got to pirouette. He then chucks it to George, but by that point, the defence had flown up and we got shut down. Great teams score there, good teams score there, it’s simple.

“Set up on the right, set up on the left, and just pick them off because they were down a man down. As soon as we lost momentum there, we only ever looked like we were going for a drop goal. The best time to take a drop goal is when you’ve got momentum, speed of ball and no one’s expecting you to hit it. Everyone knew the drop goal was coming in this scenario. The management of that last moment, for me, shouldn’t have come to that point but equally we overcomplicated what is a very easy situation.

Youngs was joined by his Leicester and former England team-mate Anthony Watson on the podcast, who disagreed with his analysis.

While the winger was also staggered that England collapsed in the way they did, he believes the set-up behind the scrum was correct in the final play, but it was the platform provided by the pack that scuppered England’s plans.

While the execution of the final minutes was chaotic by the hosts, it started to unravel in the scrum, as the All Blacks came very close to winning a penalty. This meant Randall and his team-mates were immediately on the back foot, and were never able to regain the ascendency.

“Having George Ford and Furbank stacked in behind I think was important,” Watson sad. “I think the miscommunication with Rands, combined with the pressure in the scrum, forced what appeared to be overcomplication. I actually think if they had been able to execute their play with a decent platform, it would have been a walk-in.

“When you’ve got those two guys in behind the scrum swinging round one way or the other, especially when they’re down a centre, they’re going to have to fly from the inside. That’s when it just opens up for the over-the-top. You give Manny [Immanuel Feyi-Waboso] or [Tommy] Freeman five metres either side of their winger, five metres out, they’re scoring.

“So I think the setup was actually the right option. The platform and the lack of potential communication across the board in that position probably didn’t help. If they had a solid set piece and were able to get the ball to George, I think it would have been a pretty straightforward scenario. I understand if they had just split the forwards left and right they could have just gone to it, but I just feel in that position, New Zealand would have come with so much line speed

“I know it’s definitely not an area that England will be at all happy with.”