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Four England talking points after width of post loss to All Blacks
By Liam Heagney at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
Saturday at Allianz Stadium was Hollywood-esque in terms of the edge-of-seat entertainment delivered but the nagging feeling walking down the Whitton Road after the dust had settled and both camps had said their piece was that the beaten England sounded way too happy after losing a game they could have, should have won.
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It’s a Steve Borthwick trait, spin the positive, talk about learning and be the epitome of the glass-half-full guy, but the time is here when these repeated sound bites start to lose value.
Yes, England have undoubtedly become fun to watch this year. Getting filleted in Scotland last February was the best thing that has happened to them on Borthwick’s watch as it forced the immediate abandonment of their blunt, dull, tedious approach to their rugby. Out with the sterile, in with the creativity.
It’s been transformative but they have got to stop feeling satisfied that they are not far away from securing big Test wins regularly. We had this narrative throughout the Stuart Lancaster era, an endearing competitiveness but his English crew were only ever good enough for an annual second-place Six Nations finish.
Always close but ultimately never enough cigar, which is precisely where Borthwick’s England currently are. Ireland were epically pipped at the death in March but repeating that nerves-of-steel type win has since been frustratingly elusive, France and now New Zealand three times on the bounce skipping away into the night with the spoils.
While these one, seven and two-point margins of defeat to the Kiwis in Dunedin, Auckland and London suggest performances that merit all-round kudos, England’s ‘encouraging’ displays could be left in the ha’penny place if Ireland and France come along and scuttle the All Blacks in the next two weekends.
As it stands, Borthwick’s record in charge is just above breakeven, 13 wins in 25 matches, but their current run of five losses in their seven most recent outings needs altering. No more Mr Nice Guys. Here are the RugbyPass talking points from their 22-24 defeat to New Zealand:
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The wrong sub pick
We are very much George Ford fans. The Sale orchestrator was critical to last March’s attack overhaul, performing at the top of his game in those clashes with the Irish and the French. However, he was the wrong man to have on the England bench against the All Blacks.
Borthwick has improved as a Test team selector and is a finer-details guy regarding squad morale. For example, he made a point at the end of Saturday’s warm-up to shake hands with Luke Cowan-Dickie, Trevor Davison, Jack van Poortvliet, Fin Smith and Elliot Daly, thanking them for their selfless participation as the 24th to 28th men to try and ensure England were ready.
However, when it came to the bench, Borthwick was misguided in choosing Ford ahead of Fin Smith as the back-up to Marcus Smith. Ford missed the summer tour through injury while his current club season had been restricted to no more than 86 minutes due to a September 28 quad tear at Saracens.
Five weeks without action meant he came in cold when sent on with 17 minutes to go at Twickenham and that lack of match sharpness cruelly told, Ford falling off his tackle on the try-scoring Mark Tele’a and then botching his two potential win-rescuing kicks, hitting an upright off the tee with his penalty and then drifting a drop goal narrowly wide.
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Of course, he will be much better when he next plays for England, but that is irrelevant. He needed to be accurate this weekend and he wasn’t. While Fin Smith is vastly inexperienced compared to Ford at Test level, his five full 80-minute performances for Northampton meant he was the form choice Borthwick needed to go with to complete the job versus the Kiwis.
It wasn’t the head coach’s only decisional mishap. Hooking Ben Spencer and Marcus Smith at a time when their starting half-back partnership was flourishing and dominating was premature.
The pair had been excellent in turning around a 6-14 deficit into a 22-14 lead and it appeared they had plenty more to give rather than Borthwick sending on Harry Randall and Ford and England ‘losing’ 0-10 while they were on.
Borthwick’s six-forwards-on-the-bench tactic also stalled, but in the opposite way. What was the point in having an extended ‘bomb squad’ if you don’t fully pull the pin? Nick Isiekwe was wasted as the extra forward option, only getting about two and a half minutes after the lead had been lost. He should have arrived sooner.
Ecstacy and agony, sport can be so cruel…#ENGvNZL pic.twitter.com/ItsW3cpvBK
— Autumn Nations Series (@autumnnations) November 2, 2024
Felix and the offloads
A penny for the thoughts of the exiled Felix Jones, the defence coach being made to remotely serve his notice period after declaring in late August that assisting England is something he no longer fancies.
Nine weeks on from that revelation, England took the field with Borthwick’s wedding usher, Joe El-Abd, now coaching defence and the manner of the three tries conceded swiftly ended his honeymoon.
Coming from Oyonnax in the French Pro D2, it was always going to be a step up to Test level for him and questions must be asked if what he preached and tweaked this past fortnight at training hurt the England rearguard.
As fabulous as it was to see inside centre Ollie Lawrence topping the tackle count with a whopping 22 and revelling in the responsibility, New Zealand clinically got around England on the edge – George Furbank, Ellis Genge and Ford all found wanting when the tries were conceded.
Would that have happened with Jones still hands-on in the set-up? We can’t say for certain, but what was definite is that England must do better in shutting down the opposition offload from the tackle.
It was a statistic that stood out, New Zealand making 14 offloads to England’s meagre four in contrast to last time out in Auckland when there were just two Kiwi offloads to three English after the Jones’ defence was fine-tuned from Dunedin a week earlier when there was a Twickenham-type difference between the teams’ respective offloading levels.
There was none prettier or as devastating on Saturday as Wallace Sititi getting his one-handed pass away to the scoring Tele’a when Furbank shot out of the line and went high to ‘help’ the lower-down Tommy Freeman make a double tackle.
“If you see it, do it, you back yourself,” enthused Kiwi boss Scott Robertson about this offloading dominance. “That’s part of the skill set, part of our DNA. We want to play footy. If it’s on we will take the opportunity in front of us.” Unfortunately for England, they did.
The @AllBlacks get the first try of the Autumn Nations Series!
Mark Tele'a slides in! ?#AutumnNationsSeries | #ENGvNZL pic.twitter.com/lFkl8fjJuv
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) November 2, 2024
Double-barrelled star era
Switching from the collective to the individual, the Autumn Nations Series opener was proof that double barrel surnames are set to be up in English lights for quite some time.
In other circumstances, the 21-year-old duo Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Chandler Cunningham-South could be representing Wales and New Zealand respectively. Instead, they have the potential to be England rockstars for the next decade and more if the adoration of the Twickenham crowd was an indicator.
England haven’t played most at home lately – Saturday was just their third London match in 16 outings – but the power in the tackle and general level of skill and intelligence shown by Feyi-Waboso and Cunningham-South was something for the white-shirted fans to giddily celebrate.
The crowd reaction to Feyi-Waboso’s try finish was deafening while the standing ovation afforded to Cunningham-South when he was subbed with England leading was deserved given how his dominant tackles helped to swing the momentum in a bristling way when his team were losing.
Both were understandably name-checked in the aftermath. “I couldn’t be more impressed with Manny, not only in open space but he made a lot of tough carries as well,” enthused skipper Jamie George. “The way he was in the air, some of his athleticism was incredible.”
Borthwick added: “Chandler’s development over this last period of time has been excellent. He is a real determined player who is growing to be a real Test match player… he is doing a tremendous job.”
Here’s to seeing more of this type of impact then in the coming weekends, with the result hopefully being these two young double-barrelled bucks becoming household names by the end of November. The English games needs new stars and these two rookies look like they have what it takes.
A try for the ages ?
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso crosses for England as they nudge ahead at Allianz Stadium.
Watch the second half live now on @rugbyontnt ?
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) November 2, 2024
The half-time bottleneck
Here’s a left-field suggestion – what about extending the duration of the half-time interval? As fabulous as it was to have an attendance of 81,910 packed into an atmospheric Allianz Stadium, the concourse was an almighty bottleneck at the break, whether you were looking to spend a penny in the loo or spend pounds at the drinks and food stalls. People moved slowly, if at all.
The result? Numerous empty seats when referee Angus Gardner blew his whistle to start the second half. If rugby is truly an entertainment business, surely every effort should be made to help fans get back in their seats in time and not miss any of the treasured action.
Who knows? Not only could an extended half-time reflect well on the player welfare message, giving them an extra few minutes to rest and recover and not come back ‘cold’ as Robertson explained about Tupou Vaa’i and his 42nd-minute leg issue, it could well suit the TV companies shelling out the megabucks to broadcast the live match coverage.
Looking down from the gantry, this writer spotted TNT Sports pundits Courtney Lawes and Sam Warburton wedged into touchline seats down in the corner in line with the try-line England were defending in the opening half.
That was hardly the best vantage point for them to get the best feel of the exchanges but such is the level of congestion at a stadium like Twickenham, it was better having them there ready to contribute to the live TV half-time discussion rather than battle their way through the crowd if they were seated higher up in the stand.
Twickenham has much to crow about. Its busy set-up certainly delivers when it comes to the pre- and post-game activities around the stadium to help attract fans in early through the turnstiles and get them to hang around afterwards. Half-time, though, is quite the ordeal.
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SB should be just as happy as if he won, in the grand scheme of tings which way the result went is meaningless. He's right to be happy that he only needs to worry about where their attack went, and not where they're going to have to find an attack from etc.
Likewise they could show their continued rise.
This is the same clutching at straws as above and is exactly what SB wants to avoid. MT does that to the best defenders in the game, he was the perfect person to be on for that ending.
More of the above. That facet is probably more about NZ development that a week under a different coach. Jones would have happily played out this year?
It's funny that how in the AB media it has all been about moving on more quickly yet multiple of these views expressed here about England are more about holding on/back. I do agree with the topics of trusting the younger guys with fitness over the old guys returning to fitness, with in selection or use from the bench though. That is a forward thinking approach.
Here is a fifth talking point:
NZ still being coached to employ cynical tactics.
4 tackles off the ball designed to take out an extra pair of hands in a line break. I have rewatched the match and not one of these were accidental.
Angus Gardner has grown into a world class referee and I applaud his performance.
This match should never have come down to a drop kick, England were guilty of showing little patience with ball in hand. They could easily have milked a penalty at the death by forcing NZ to infringe, NZ always infringe on their 10 meter, the average viewer knows this so why on earth didn’t the English leadership on the field play accordingly?
Yeah I felt the same way re NZ, much preferred the Dmac lead side but 3 in 3 weeks was a big ask and maybe Eng didnt adjust well enough to the different type of game BB would bring.
Eng got away with a lot of good stuff in and around the ruck, on the ground, instead. I'd prefer it NZ were unique in trying to standout in not giving away cynical penalties.
Know how NZ are being coached do you? I doubt anyone coaches players to give away such dumb obvious penalties. The All Blacks were penalised 3 times for the ball tackles. The first by Jordie Barrett was because he fell for an Itoje dummy and went to tackle Cunningham-South, ineffectually as he pulled out half way through and came off worse than his victim. Cane's was the worst and tackled a supporting player, most likely because as they suggested to the ref Engalnd were playing flat to the defensive line which meant they were running into All Blacks without the ball. Aumua tackled Smith after he had passed the ball, not while he was in support, stupid, and rightfully penalised. The 4th was Lienert-Brown and wasn't technically penalised as he was actually yellow carded for a prior dangerous tackle.
The most cynical foul I saw in the whole game was actually Itoje reaching through the ruck to grab the ball and pull it back in, clearly off his feet , ruck fully formed , 10 metres out in front the posts ,deserving of a yellow in IMHO.
You're right it should never have come down to a drop kick, the All Blacks stupid errors kept England in the game, dropped balls, off the ball tackles, poor kicking and a wobbly line out. Without the All black errors the English attack consisted of Marcus Smith going for drop goals when in the NZ 22. The lack of ability of the English to create tries should worry them, but they insist on taking positives from poor performances. Yes Engalnd could have one, but only because NZ let them back in after the final try, screwed up the restart, stupid high tackle and lost the ball in the tackle. 3 mistakes that nearly cost them but didn't.
Agreed. Watching England lose has been fun.
Same England, same story for a decade. Kick well, set piece well, defend aggressively, no idea how to score tries.
England were kept in the game by NZ penalties and handling errors, aside from an interception we got nowhere near scoring a try. England's attack is AWFUL. If Argentina can tear holes in the ABs ball in hand, there is no excuse for England's inability to create. Coming so close in these games means a) we're doing some stuff very well and b) plastering over the fact that our attacking play is the worst of any top tier team in the world.
We're focusing on missed kicks and what could have beens because we just missed out when if we were able to execute in the red zone and came away with a few tries instead of those penalties we would be winning these tight games by 10-15... The players have the skill, they showed it against Ireland, but they're so focused on the prescribed gameplan that they're devoid of instinct.
Both sides will be saying that of course, and both were to be fair to the coaches, so it's fair for the author (and vast amount of other opinion you highlight) to say you could/should have won the game of missed chances. I just don't think he's highlighting the right areas - as well as putting too much on their relevance in relation to what you highlight are bigger areas of improvement - which is more to the point in regards to this article.
The great teams still find ways to win despite there being a couple of below par performances from key players and my concern for England is this inability to close games out and get over the finish line becomes psychologically toxic and a barrier to progression. On yesterday’s evidence, I can see the Australia game being a lot closer than many suspect.
It’s too easy to say it’s the personnel or we just don’t have decent enough props or we couldn’t deal with the offloads. All teams create those sort of moments in games. England just didn’t create or execute enough of their own yesterday.
Tactically, Borthwick got that game completely wrong. Blame is rightly being laid at Ford’s feet, who should never have missed both those closing opportunities. Borthwick has handed EPS contracts to his 3 FHs, so we can assume Ford has now shifted to 3rd in the pecking order with yesterday’s loss representing an opportunity for F. Smith to fill the #2 birth.
Ultimately, England need to get a bit more nasty and uncompromising and start demanding a bit more of themselves because Borthwick’s promise of sunlit uplands that never materialize is starting to wear a bit thin.
When did these promises start? Surely you're not including last year. It was a bit of a dire situation for them but Foster took 3 years before it started working.
I don’t think it’s fair to place blame at Fords feet. I think the blame should be laid at the coaches feet.
I think it ridiculous that Felix Jones is serving his notice “remotely”. WTF isn’t anyone seeing wrong with this picture.
10 bucks says Australia beats England. And all hell breaks loose.
I think it’s remarkable that anyone is still buying this “we’re learning and getting better…. But we’re so close to winning” bit.
We're not closing out games but the bigger problems is, we're not scoring any tries. Aside from an interception we didn't even look like it. We're coming away from every red zone entry with 3 points and that adds up to narrow defeat. Until England find an attacking identity we're not going to be a good side. England's attack is pathetic. Territory, possession, set piece, keeping the scoreboard ticking over are all super important to winning test matches and we're doing that part very well, the attacking structure and intent is atrocious, no other top tier side looks so clueless ball in hand, it's inexcusable... But I expect no different from Borthers and The Wiggler, that's how they've always played.