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'All of our own doing': John Mitchell's warning for England
By PA
England head coach John Mitchell insists a 24-12 victory over New Zealand provided a timely lesson in the art of ruthlessness against top opposition.
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The Red Roses came through a shaky start to score 24 unanswered points in front of a 41,523 crowd at Allianz Stadium, only to let New Zealand back into the game through two tries from Katelyn Vahaakolo.
The rivals are expected to clash again in next year’s World Cup final at the same venue and they will meet for the last time before the global event in WXV1 next month.
And Mitchell believes England’s failure to bury the Black Ferns when in the ascendency will prove valuable in 12 months’ time.
“When you’ve got the foot on the throat, finish it,” Mitchell said.
“Our discipline in the last 20 metres of the field let them off the hook. We had them exactly where we wanted them.
“We didn’t get momentum like we normally do. New Zealand did a good job there. For us there’s some key learnings in how we get momentum against New Zealand.,
“New Zealand will continue to play the way they do, it’s just in their DNA. We knew that was going to come.
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“We gave them some possession and some soft tries. All of our own doing, which was good because for the last World Cup we didn’t get these kinds of lessons at this time of year. It’s really good for you.
“It was a satisfying performance. We went through a patchy start and then built some really good pressure and unstructured play.
“We’ve completed a series of two tough Test matches and some of the girls were playing for the first time in 10 weeks.
“There was always going to be a bit of rust, so you can’t be too hard on the girls. But the girls are hard markers and so they’ll ant to get better.”
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New Zealand flanker Kennedy Tukuafu was pleased with the fight shown by her side when taking the game to England in the second-half.
“I’m really proud of a lot of things we did out there. A lot of things we could have tidied up, like holding on to the ball and showing more of what we’ve got,” Tukuafu said.
“The thing I love about this team is that they have got a lot of heart and they never roll over.
“Credit to the English girls, they’re a good side and they’re relentless. We’re fortunate to have another opportunity against them at WXV.”
Glad you think that Mitch
It was an impressive 30 mins but also the black ferns were easily the better got the first 20 and were the better team in the second half
At Twickenham which is a hard place to play and topped all the game metrics but made far too many mistakes
I was at the match and at no time did the Red Roses look like losing and won with a bit to spare. Withstood a bit of pressure in the first 20 mins and easily repelled the odd run on the wing by Leti-I'iga as she is nowhere near quick enough over 50 yards, even our second row caught her. Why she is picked before Tui I have no idea. Red Roses didn't play awfully well all through the game and turned off a bit in the 2nd half and BFs gained a bit of momentum with a fortunate bounce try and a weak tackle. The only time the England line was threatened was when they scored their 2nd try, there were no line breaks, and the Red Roses didn't take advantage of a number of opportunities at the other end. The crowd started up Mexican waves with 30 mins left, a sure sign that they could see it was done and dusted. NZ rugby teams never lose it's just that sometimes the other team scores more points than them.
So the best team lost. Got it. Standard nonsense from NZ when they lose.