All Blacks 'went away from what was working and paid the ultimate price'

Former All Blacks pivot Stephen Donald has delivered his analysis on what went wrong in New Zealand’s loss to England at Twickenham, saying the Kiwis went away from what was working as England started to dictate terms.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup hero reacted to the All Blacks’ third loss of the 2025 season this week with plenty of praise for their opponents, and fellow No.10 George Ford in particular, who was awarded Man of the Match for his efforts in a famous win.

Ford’s two drop-goals in the closing stages of the first half, after an Ollie Lawrence try initially reduced the England deficit, chipped away at what was a 12-0 New Zealand lead after 18 minutes. Ford’s game management and kicking off the tee thereafter continued to steer his side in the right direction both around the park and on the scoreboard.

After giving Ford his flowers for a commanding performance and naming him a top-three drop-goal kicker of all time, only behind South Africa’s Morne Steyn and England’s Johnny Wilkinson, Donald turned his attention to the game’s tactics.

“I think what England did well was they brought up the All Blacks to them. And I’m not saying bring them to their level, I’m just saying bringing the All Blacks to their game,” he explained on The Aftermatch with Kirst & Beav.

“The All Blacks’ first 20-25 minutes, I was quite smugly sitting on the couch thinking, oh yeah, here we go. What a place to make a statement; Twickenham, full house. Everyone’s down on the All Blacks, but no, we’re going to go and put a good score on them, because we’re just playing too fast, too skilful.

“But then a few things happened. The game started to slow down a bit. And that’s not to say that England weren’t attacking. When England attacked, they looked great. But they did it on their terms, did it at their pace, did it when they wanted to. They didn’t allow the All Blacks, or didn’t seem to allow the All Blacks, to break the game up, which I thought they were doing very well in the first 20-25 minutes.

“A lot of the play was coming off Quin Tupaea. They had clearly, in their set piece analysis, identified that (England’s) back three was suspect, positionally, both as far as covering kicks and off first phase attack. So the All Blacks’ first phase attack, I thought, was great. They exploited the fact that England were coming up nice and square, but weren’t coming up at a pace that was going to shut the play down.

“So you think about what led to the tries; the wingers and centres were in no man’s land, and then the fullback was even more in no man’s land because he wasn’t connected to his winger. And 20 or 30 out from your line, you’ve got to be connected to your winger so you can shut down players. They weren’t shutting the All Blacks down. That was great analysis. They had a plan, and clearly it was working for them.

“You think about the (Cam) Roigard 50/22, easily manipulating by just sending a guy on the open side bringing, I think it was (Freddie) Steward at the time, across, opens up the space for 50/22.

“But it appears that, through a few things, England getting the game to be played how they want it to be played, dictating terms, slowed the game right down.

“I thought our defensive line out was great. (Josh) Lord was picking them off and the like. So all these little things were working for them. The four-man lineout was working for them, then they went away from that, which surprised me, especially in the middle of the park, where it just seemed easy for them to win possession again in that first 20-25 minutes. But as the game wore on, they went away from what was working, I think, and paid the ultimate price.”