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'One of the poorest All Blacks performances I've seen in a long time'
Former Wales captain Dan Biggar believes England will see their recent 2-0 series loss to the All Blacks as a “huge, huge opportunity missed,” and has claimed Steve Borthwick’s side should have come away from New Zealand with two victories.
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England arrived in New Zealand aiming to register their first victory over the All Blacks there in 21 years, and looked to be in with a chance of achieving that feat both in Dunedin and Auckland.
In both Tests England held the lead and control of the match at the hour mark, but let their advantage slip in both encounters.
Speaking on The Rugby Pod this week, the Welsh centurion said he does not think England will ever have a better chance to beat the All Blacks away.
The Welsh centurion even went as far to say that the recent performance at Eden Park was one of the “poorest” All Blacks performances he has seen in a long time.
Both the All Blacks’ attack and defence were put under the microscope by Biggar, as he held nothing back.
“I’ve got to be honest, it would be interesting to hear from an English point of view, obviously I’m a neutral, but I don’t think England will have as good a chance to beat the All Blacks after the last two performances,” the former British & Irish Lion said.
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“I think in Dunedin, which clearly they should have won had it not been for a couple of missed kicks from Marcus [Smith], and I’ve got to be honest, I think Saturday was one of the poorest All Blacks performances I’ve seen in a long long time.”
“I think England should have walked away from this series with two victories. I think they were incredibly unlucky in Dunedin and Beauden Barrett came on and made a huge difference.
“I don’t think England will have two weeks on the spin, will they ever get as good an opportunity to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand again? I personally don’t think so.
“I personally have never seen a more error-strewn performance in the first 60 minutes from New Zealand. If England had played the way New Zealand had in that first 60 minutes, we would have been tearing them to pieces. Because New Zealand resorted to hoofing the ball down field, there were errors.
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“I must have played the All Blacks six, seven, eight times and I don’t think they gave us a single thing in any game. I watched that game on Saturday and I just thought that was such an opportunity for England.
“You look at the try Marcus Smith got back for and did exceptionally well to get an intercept- the New Zealand of old don’t butcher that. That’s seven points away from you.
“Even from a defensive point of view, for the [Tommy] Freeman try, where they had given away a ridiculous penalty advantage which allowed Smith to go for that advantage and chance his arm on a 50/50- the New Zealand of old don’t give that.
“I’d be looking at that from an England point of view and I’d be thinking that’s a huge, huge opportunity missed considering how well they played for large periods of those two Test matches.”
Everyone raises their game playing the ABs. 2nd competitive match of calendar 2024 with new coaching personnel. Whereas the Roses have played 7-8 games (I think before their tour to NZ). That is a lot of minutes played. Anyway, no excuses. Let’s see what happens at the end of the year autumn series. If there is an improvement when they meet. I wonder if playing in the same calendar season when they will have had the same minutes played (+ or -) would make a difference.
for mine the reason for these results…Nika finally clicked onto Englands line speed, rushed defence and sealing off in the second half in Dunedin…and Nic’s refereeing was spot on down to the wire during the entire Eden Park match…resulting in an AB’s 2-0 whitewash..
England lose two matches and are absolutely delighted with their performance. NZ win two matches and are absolutely disgusted with their performance. Says it all, really.
This England team will be a very good team. The All Blacks are better at the moment. I can see England has more potential with their U20’s coming. My team the Boks are probably in for a dip as the old boys retire, but will be top 4 material with the U20’s, same with the AB’s. World rugby looking very healthy where anyone in the top 5 can win. It will come down to big match temperament again RWC time. Something we are good at, because of difficult conditions growing up and our rugby culture growing up. I can see Ireland being very good too, they will overcome their QF hoodoo in Australia.
Short memory. There were poor performances in 2022 and start of 2023 before the change in coaching personnel. The performances in the 2 tests against England were not as good as we expect but it was against a very good England side, who got my respect, not just because of the way they played but the way they conducted themselves.
Let's remember this is a new team and new coaching group without 4 or 5 world class or No1 picks from last year and a new coaching group. England put us under far greater pressure than the Boks did in the World Cup final. The pleasing thing for me, was the way they adapted and the character they showed throughout both games.
The lineout has been criticized when in the 2ndctest we did the same to England in the 2nd half that they did to us in the first. This team has a lot of improvement in them and I am excited about there potential to grow better.
So its the worst ABs team ever but they just beat England twice! How bad are England?
Easy Dan….. how many w’s you get against AB’s? No doubt the wins came with a Kiwi coach. Good on ya mate.
Dream on , should hv beaten ABs , been listening to STORY for a hundred years and nothing changes.
You can win by 1 or 100 its still a win .
Sadly the proof in the pudding is you think you should of won but you DIDNT you as usual were not GOOD ENOUGH.
Be interesting how times Bigar has been in a team that beaten NZ.
Poor performances is Wales in Australia. These six nations teams should be good, your coming to the end of the season where we just starting to play our first games. Give us a chance
Both games were there for england to take but on both occasions they lacked the ability to finish phases. The 2nd test they crumbled in the last 20