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Maro Itoje sends message to England fans after heartbreaking loss
By PA
Maro Itoje has assured England fans that the team are closing in on the statement win needed to justify claims that progress is being made under Steve Borthwick.
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England endured a dramatic 24-22 defeat by New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, placing them on the back foot for the remaining autumn Tests against Australia, South Africa and Japan.
Outside of a glorious victory over Ireland in March, they have developed the habit of building winning positions against top opposition only to throw the game away in the closing stages.
Demonstrating this trend is that their three consecutive defeats by the All Blacks under Borthwick have been by a combined total of 10 points – and on each occasion they led in the final quarter.
“We will get there. We have to lick our wounds and take our medicine at the moment, but this team is building in a positive direction,” Saracens lock Itoje said.
“I have been part of a few teams and you get a sense of when a team is moving in the right direction.
“I think we are growing in the right areas of the game, we are aggressive in attack and there is a general feel of confidence and vibe amongst the players.
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“We have had some agonising losses, but this is a different team to what it was 18 months ago with the way we play, the endeavour we show.
“Sometimes in the past when we lost, they were clear losses and we were clutching at straws. I don’t feel we are clutching at straws now. We lost but we’re close.
“It did not feel like we were playing a team that was by far better than us and we were surviving.
“We actually felt we deserved to win the game but ultimately we didn’t and that’s the most important thing.
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“But I do feel like we are genuinely moving in the right direction. Unfortunately we will have to take our medicine now, but I think we will get it.”
Sale’s England Under-20 prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour has been called up as loosehead cover following the retirement of Joe Marler. The uncapped Opoku-Fordjour will provide cover for Ellis Genge and Fin Baxter.
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This England team should save their celebrations for scoring tries and winning games.
To see the whole forward pack whooping and hollering and gesticulating to the crowd after a simple act like making a big tackle is completely crazy to me.
How can players on this team continue celebrating every penalty like they just won the world cup when they keep losing games? Congratulations you won a scrum penalty or caused a knock on - maybe keep your head in the game and try to close it out instead of giving yourself a high five and thinking you're job is done.
Mentally, whatever emphasis is being put on winning these tiny moments is clearly taking energy away from the ultimate goal.
And how can the same team lose the same game in the same circumstances again and again and claim to be on the right track? If making no progress whatsoever is "the right direction" what does the alternative look like?
Mediocre comments, from a mediocre team, with mediocre expectations. Sad.
They should award trophies to teams that are "moving in the right direction".
So this has all been riding off the one win over Ireland?
Will the statement win be this year? Any idea of time frames Maro?
Against Japan?
They've utterly abandoned the playstyle employed vs Ireland and gone back to playing like Warren Gatland is the coach.
Why chase a "statement win" when you can't even get a lucky win, or a sneaky win. Make a big statement one week and fall to pieces the next. This team only cares about statements which is why their whole forward pack experiences ecstasy when they win a penalty. - Great statement boys. No need to win the game now that we disrupted that maul drive.