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Everyone is saying the same thing after agonising England loss
By Ian Cameron
England head coach Steve Borthwick faced intense scrutiny following a narrow 24-22 loss to New Zealand at Allianz Stadium, with many questioning his decision to replace fly-half Marcus Smith with George Ford late in the game.
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Ford’s introduction proved costly, as he missed a one-on-one tackle on Mark Telea as he scored a crucial try before failing to capitalize on two late opportunities to secure victory with two kicks at goal.
England had fought hard to keep pace with the All Blacks but Telea’s second try shifted the momentum in New Zealand’s favour.
However, Steve Borthwick’s side were given a lifeline in the closing moments after Anton Lienert-Brown’s dangerous tackle on Theo Dan awarded Ford a chance to edge his team ahead. With a 77th-minute penalty, Ford struck the right upright.
A knock-on from the All Blacks saw England get a short-range scrum moments later but Ford’s attempted drop-goal sailed wide, dashing England’s hopes of a comeback in the Autumn Nations Series opener.
The decision to bench Smith – who had been controlling the game well – drew criticism from fans and pundits alike. Former England fly-half Andy Goode voiced the sentiment of many, tweeting: “ I’m not sure about taking Marcus Smith off when he was on fire and one missed tackle ended up being the difference… When is Steve Borthwick just going to give Marcus Smith his backing for the whole 80? Back the man, he’s class and shouldn’t have been taken off.”
Rugby podcaster Mike Cooper wrote: “Well, England have properly butchered that one. Borthwick needs a proper examination to figure out why you would take off your best performing player to try and cling on against the All Blacks. Earl brainless no-arms tackle pivotal too. Close losses no longer good enough.”
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Former All Blacks fly-half Lima Sopoaga wrote: “If I’m Marcus Smith I’m spewing,” while retired Fiji and Leicester Tigers winger Nemani Nadolo said: “Crazy old game.. crazy to bring Marcus Smith off.. I thought the energy changed when he went off?”
Another rugby account wrote: “Changes for the sake of it cost England. Marcus Smith was having a good game and probably would have nailed the penalty/drop goal. Never understand why Borthwick decides to effectively park the bus with 10 mins to go.”
Another account said: “Why on earth would you sub Marcus Smith when he was playing immaculately? A senseless choice of sub that cost us the game. Of all unusual substitutions England Rugby fans have ever seen made, that one truly takes the cake. Bizarre decision, with pressure heaped on Ford.”
The match had been fuelled by pre-game controversy, with England prop Joe Marler dismissing the haka as “ridiculous” and calling for it to be “binned.” While the fireworks expected from the All Blacks were slow to materialize, they erupted in the dying minutes.
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I wish I was South African?....
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the next England team meeting.
Reckon Felix Jones will keep his camera off ”to save bandwidth”.
Comments about England being offside are wide of the mark. NZ tackling players off the ball was only picked up 3 times. The ref was lenient. Plus the yellow should have been a red head on head contact. Let's not forget NZ have played a number of matches together prior to this fixture. So the poor ball handling wasn't down to rustiness but good England pressure
The yellow incident was a farce. Ref claimed it wasn't fowl play cuz he'd just given someone a yellow and didn't want to send NZ down to 13. Then when the TMO said he could swap who he sent to the bin, suddenly he said it met the yellow card threshold and swapped the cards over haha.
Not complaining about the result, NZ were much better than England but that was some dodgy AF reffing!
A rush D always lives on the border of being offside, and England's is no exception. Take a look at Jordan's try - the English 14 was a mile offside - he was barely behind NZ's last foot, let alone England's. Not a criticism of England - if you're allowed to get away with it, then do it. And pretty much every team these days goes offside when defending near their own line.
Agree with you that the ABs tackled too much off the ball - a lack of concentration. Wonder also if the ALB yellow-card tackle was I think a result of him having head-contact moments before - not sure he was quite with it as the tackled player was quite a way from the ball.
The All Blacks didn’t win that game the english lost and I’m buggered if I know how.
The All Blacks ball handling skills were abysmal, so many penalties and england failed to capitalise.
If smith had stayed on I think it probably would’ve been a different result, the dude was on fire.
England were offside the whole game, forcing errors, but yes, at times it was poor. I have to say it is mainly the backline, forwards were unbelievable in contact, getting arms free and drawing their man.
Smith was okay this game, had his ups and downs. He shouldn't have attempted either of those drop goals, and should've had the balls to go to the corner when they had some of those penalties. He also didn't setup any tries for his team, the only one being a lucky-offside-ref-in-the-way-14-point-who-are-you-passing-to try
Good game from England.
It was funny listening to some of their comms how they thought they should have been better though, or had better results lol
That's the coachs fault for putting the other teams best attackers up against your worst defenders. He didn't even miss the tackle did he, just went over in it?
They need to think about the big picture. It's for the better of the squad, Smith might go down with injury and not play the rest of the tour. Bringing Ford on turned out to be a tactically astute move, luck just wasn't on their side.
Fans need to be more concerned about the lack of ability to construct any tries, that can't all be on the halfback?
Everyone is saying the same thing?
I'm saying hahaha
I’m thinking the same thing
England have nothing to complain about, both teams were at times abysmal and far worse than their earlier tests this year.
England also have no right to their outstanding blindside flanker, straight out poached from NZ professional rugby.
Bizarre penalties against Jordan and Ratima to let England off the hook in the first half which lead to the ridiculous penalty count.
Interested to see if the disallowed try to Beauden was once again the TMO going beyond the number of allowed phases and the puzzling decision not to check whether Marcus Smith was onside with his intercept.
The Allblacks should've really won the game by 35-10 or similar so what's going wrong?
Why did an uninspiring England look likely to win with fifteen minutes left?
The answer is Sititi is carrying the other two Allblack loose forwards, Savea and especially Cane are yesterday's men.
England were able to get away with a lot more slowing down of the ball than they should've surely due to the poorly balanced Allblack back row which also helped the lineout struggle.
With England given knock on advantage why did the ref allow England to refuse to play the ball? That's not in the spirit of the game
The repeat tackles by Allblacks of players without the ball was woeful, however England was running blockers slightly in front of the ball carrier at times,
England also had hands all over the ball at the breakdown, one an obvious penalty that inexplicably the ref ignored in front of goal by the English number eight which would've made the score 22-20 to England.
Finally. Rugby needs to drop the value of penalties from three to two, England didn't attack and should've never been in contention to win this test.
Scott Barrett has to sort out the poor discipline but also ask more of the refereeing.
Yep, you could tell which jersey Chandler Cunningham-South wanted to be wearing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that England were awful... The scoreboard was incredibly flattering. As an Englishman it's frustrating that these scorelines keep the coaches thinking they're on the right track. Hopefully we'll get a wake-up call against Aus or SA. England's attack was nonexistent and has been for years.
100%
Wow, the England hate is palpable lol
Savea yesterday's man lol jog on son dropped your credibility like an icecreamcone
To me it looked liked the ABs were mostly well in control despite not playing particularly well. If anything they were unlucky not to score another 2 or 3tries. Finishing and discipline remain NZ's work ons.
Agreed. England had lost three on the trot against a NZ team well off their best.
Smith butchers 2 drop goals, but some think he would have nailed the last one.
Yeah, some think rugby results has a future component. What if's and maybe's. Weird.
As a neutral, enjoyed wstching. Looking forward to next weekend in Dublin.
Well well It’s one of those mistakes, or misjudgment by replacing Smith, but Steve is still on it !
Well It’s one of those gross mistakes that occurred in these kind of matches, the England coach has got nothing wrong he has done, it’s just misjudgement in replacing Smith, really any coach could have done that, Steve is still on it !
Changing the 10 is almost always a bad idea and should only be done if he's injured, playing badly or you're losing and there is a game changing 10 on the bench to provide impact. None of those things were true in this case, what was Borthwick trying to achieve? Smith should be capable of playing the full 80, 10 isn't a physically demanding position.
The ABs were gifting England so many opportunities to win this. Lucky to get away with that one.
hello name
The real difference was,one missed conversion,one successful one.
And the knives are out already.
It’s weird watching the ABs. In the past, the passes always stuck. The offloads always stuck. There were a few times tonight they looked like scoring many more times. Maybe it’s confidence, but in time they’ll find their rhythm
England never looked like winning. Even after they went ahead. They certainly weren’t the better side. NZ’s ill discipline (again) kept England in it.
By the time they play your team at Eden Park next year, you will see more passes sticking
I'll discipline also comes from pressure though. I felt England weren't great until the 2nd half, but either the backroom disruptions and this being their first game against a more battle-hardened ABs, I felt they actually did alright. The scrum improved but not for 80 mins, so that actually represents progress.
Yeah that was in the past
The first half penalties against NZ were for speculative tackling because England were attacking so flat. If NZ didn't do this then it may have been tries and not penalties conceded earlier. I believe Felix Jones is still helping with the transition online. It was quite clear he wasn't helping in person with Earls in particular shooting up and leaving huge holes. NZ had a few that nearly stuck but the two tries by Telea were defensive errors. Furbank biting on Sititi leaving Genge to mark albeit great offload. Genge wont show Telea the outside again. Poor tacking on Telea for the second. That said he is a hard man to grab hold of.
Isolating Genge was clever for Jordans try. NZ spotted he was turning up in the line too often and they could leave a gap with that switch play. 6 day turnaround for Ireland now.
I imagine NZ will be better, but they will need to be a lot better.
Fl_ at u lance.
Borethwick lost the game bringing ford on .
Smith was on fire.
You say Ford has magical control.
Can shut out games .
Has better tackle rate than Smith , ect etc
Yet again UTTERLY NOTHING ON SHOW .
How blind can one be .
Finally, finally ford finished .
It's the 2 Smiths ftom now on and you are one on your own backing ford anymore .
BYEEEEE
I've never said any of those things.
Ford has been England's best 10 for years and deserves to be given the full 80, but he's never been an impact player.
Give him the 80, or give him 0.
0 then