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Marcus Smith on that substitution and his England plea
By
PA
Marcus Smith insists England can take comfort in the career trajectories of Usain Bolt and Dan Carter as they come to terms with another near-miss against New Zealand.
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George Ford, Smith’s replacement at fly-half, missed last-gasp penalty and drop-goal attempts as the All Blacks left Allianz Stadium on Saturday with a 24-22 victory.
Including their two Tests in July, England have lost three successive matches to New Zealand by a combined total of 10 points, continuing their trend of falling to narrow defeats against top-four opposition.
As they turn attention to Saturday’s appointment with Australia, Smith looks to sprint great Bolt and All Blacks star Carter as examples of how it can take time to reach the pinnacle of a sport.
“It’s not a coincidence that people win towards the end. Dan Carter played his first World Cup final at 33, sometimes it’s life,” Smith said.
“Usain Bolt, in his first Olympics (2004), didn’t get out of the group stages. Now everyone admires him as a legend.
“International rugby is very different to the Premiership and the experiences we’re experiencing now are very painful, but we’ll be better for them.
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“Keep the faith. We’ve fallen again on the wrong side of the result, but we’ll learn from it 100 per cent.
“These experiences will tighten us as a group and it will be worth it in the long run. We will be better for it.”
Smith and Ford were at the centre of the most contentious moment of the afternoon in the 62nd minute when a fly-half who was hitting all the right notes was replaced by one who had not played in over a month because of a quad injury.
Ford has been and will continue to be a vital presence for England, but his missed tackle for Mark Tele’a’s 75th-minute try, as well as a wayward drop-goal and penalty that struck the right post, were evidence of a player in need of more game time before being thrust into such a decisive stage of a Test.
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Smith has no issue with the substitution, stating that it was the “coaches’ decision and I’m right behind whatever decision they make”.
He also gives Ford his full support, not least because the Sale veteran was hardly given the ideal platform from which to launch his drop-goal.
“Sometimes that’s the life of a kicker, we’ve all experienced that. It’s part and parcel of the job,” Smith said.
“I’ve learned so much off George. He’s an unbelievable kicker, both off the tee and out of hand. It was one of those days.
“It’s nothing to do with him why we didn’t win the game. It’s a team effort. Every kicker in the world has experienced that.
“As kickers we always practise the drop-goal, but it’s very different when you’re out there in front of 80,000 people and the All Blacks shouting ‘Drop-goal! Drop-goal!’.
“It’s an extremely tough kick. Fordy is a master of that drop-goal kick. We go through that scenario week-in, week-out. We practise it as kickers every single day but sometimes it doesn’t go for you. We’re all human and people miss.”
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But was it a bad substitution? At that stage, regardless of what Marcus Smith had been doing, England had scored one try instigated by Smith intercepting a pass and kicked penalties. When George Ford came on, the comment was that here's the guy who will close out the game and he was doing a reasonable job with the game plan. If his penalty kick went a couple of inches further to the left, you'd be saying that he's a hero, such are the fine margins.
I know that Stuart Barnes said that Smith would've landed the drop goal, but that's ignoring the fact that he'd missed 2 or 3 attempts at dropped goals in the first half when there wasn't the same pressure.
Saying that he'd missed Mark Tele’a when he scored the winning try is putting the blame on an easy scape goat when there were a number of tacklers who failed to stop him scoring.
Why the passive voice? How about "we need to stop screwing up"?
In a game of 3 tries to 1, NZ gave up enough penalties for England to still be in the race with minutes to go. Repeatedly failing to close it out is not about bad luck or external circumstances. It's about not executing the basics under pressure, and that's a problem.
Attempted 2 x DG's, on penalty advantage. Missed both of them. Dumb rugby, when your best player reverts to an English mindset of safety first then horizons will always be limited.
Borthwicks decision to sub smith for ford was patently the wrong decision, moreover even having ford on the bench in the 1st place was an odd decision, given that he had been injured in the run up to these tests.
Lozowski would have been a more rational pick.
The continued narrative of jam tomorrow from this team Is beginning to sound hollow.
I get what Marcus is saying. But on the other hand New Zealand played poorly and still won. They have a very young team,are also going to get better ,are learning their lessons,will be better in the future like Usain bolt blah blah. They're also winning the majority of their games right now.
England have lost a lot of tests under Borthwick and only got to a semi-final because of a lopsided draw.
This whole narrative of England are going to be great just wait and see is nonsense. Their attack was awful, rush defense kind of worked but still leaked tries. Where's the great? Maybe they need to copy what Ireland and France are doing because what their doing isn't working.
ABs played 'poorly'. Alright buddy.
Borthwick you boofhead
I have a great idea.
With Borthwick making utterly stupid substitute decisions , again, how about subbing HIM off after 53 minutes, just when he is about to make the ridiculous choice to bugger the team up .
We could have ,say, Clive ,Rob Baxter , or even Steve Hanson , taking the decision to ,or not ,to sub anyone. In fact, my granny would make a better decision .
Sounds mad ,yes, but so was Borethwicks crazy ,mindless choice .
Will he even think he was wrong .
Dont hold your breath .