Borthwick's verbal blast and three other England talking points
RugbyPass steered clear of all the very busy temporary beer outlets in and around Stade Mauroy on Saturday evening, yet waking up on Sunday morning was like having a painful hangover due to the insipid level of England play witnessed the day before.
The fixture versus Samoa was supposed to be about turning the clock back to the epic time when the 10/12 combination of George Ford and Owen Farrell rocked along the way to the 2019 Rugby World Cup final, a rockstar duo whose entire band was reunited as Steve Borthwick was unleashing the 10/12/13 combo of them with Manu Tulagi for the first time since March 2020.
Instead, the only clock revision that transpired in Lille was England reprising their recent ugly Summer Nations Series sluggishness – and there was also an embarrassing gaffe of Farrell being timed out on the kicking tee shot clock at a moment in the game where his struggling team trailed 11-17 and were in dire need of a lifeline from their new all-time record points scorer.
Here, RugbyPass sifts through the aftermath of their extremely fortunate one-point win and what it means for their momentum heading into next weekend’s Sunday quarter-final in Marseille, most likely versus Fiji:
Wrong moment to settle scores
It was odd how head coach Borthwick used his post-game media briefing to harangue critics of his team. “There have been many times these players have been written off quite badly, there were many,” he chippily said, later adding: “Ultimately there were many people that wrote that this team would not get out of the group stages and the team has progressed.”
There can be no arguing that the team has progressed in the factual sense that they have moved into the quarter-finals having won all four pool matches. But was an undeserved one-point win against an opposition they were expected to comfortably beat really the forum for the head coach to come out swinging?
It wasn’t. Instead, it was a case of the coach failing to ready the room properly. Next Sunday evening, if semi-final progress is secured in Marseille, would have been the better, more credible time to settle some scores.
Barnes puts Farrell on the spot
Skipper Farrell reacted evasively when put on the spot by ex-England out-half Stuart Barnes, who wanted an assessment of how the reprised midfield combination of Farrell and Tuilagi, operating outside of Ford at No10, went.
This trio was a throwback to the 2019 World Cup campaign and it was clear to anyone watching that despite a couple of early gallops from Tuilagi, including his assist for the ninth-minute Ollie Chessum try from an intervention in the line by Freddie Steward, the combination didn’t click.
It was rightly dismantled not long into the second half with England struggling for go-forward. Ford exited, Farrell went to 10 and then Tuilagi also departed a few minutes later with an alleged unspecified knock.
Barnes began: “Owen, can I ask you how you rate the England midfield, the one that played against New Zealand in 2019 in the semi-final; how did you think that functioned today?”
“I don’t think it is about the midfield, it is about the performances as a whole,” replied Farrell. “We will look at what parts that bit can do better and of course there will be plenty that we can do better.
“But the main thing is the performance on a whole. As has been said, we will look back at it properly and we will make sure we will find the bits that we feel we can do better and pull that into next week.”
Owen Farrell on his shot clock gaffe and breaking Jonny Wilkinson's England points record. #EnglandRugby #ENGvSAM #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/3cYYCEq5Cz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 8, 2023
That reply didn’t cut the mustard for Barnes, who responded: “I’m sorry but the midfield is also part of the jigsaw. It’s not just the jigsaw outside the midfield, so you have a role there. Given what happened on the field, can I again ask that question – how do you feel it went as a unit?”
“I’d say same as the performance, we’ll look at that, we’ll see what we can do better. That is part of the performance, you’re right, and we will look back at it and see the bits that we want to improve and we will make sure that we do.”
Make of that what you will.
The not-so-slick kick
Courtney Lawes perfectly explained last week the England DNA. “We’re a really strong defensive team. That’s probably our backbone; we have conceded one try in the last three games, so that is great, and obviously an aerial kicking team. We are very good at getting the ball back and we’re looking to build attack off that.”
We checked out the stats and learned that England, on the back of regathering 28 of their 110 kicks from the hands in their opening three games, had a regather percentage of 30.8, top of the charts when compared to next-best France (24.2 per cent of kicks regathered) and New Zealand (21.28 of kicks regathered) while the likes of Wales, South Africa and Ireland were are in single digit figures for reclaimed kicks.
England’s DNA was severely tested by the Samoans, who scored two tries and could easily have had four or five – and they wouldn’t have been begrudged that high a tally given the way they dominated the exchanges.
But what of the kicking? Of their 25 booted from the hand, England put 15 into touch and of the 10 remaining, just one kick was regathered so their win-back ratio was well below what had been seen previously versus Argentina, Japan and Chile.
Contrast that to Samoa, who had the nifty momentum generator in Lima Sopoaga. The took kicked 25 times from the hand, putting 16 into touch. Of the nine that stayed in play, three were regathered – included in that 29th-minute peach of a catch by Nigel Ah-Wong to shunt Samoa into the lead they held to 44 minutes.
That was a replica of the score England grabbed late on in Nice when Ford, left-footed, found Steward in space out wide. There was no sniff of a repeat in Lille as Ford and co were rattled by the Samoans and looked well short of rescue ideas until the late yellow card tipped the balance their way when it came to the result-deciding five-metre scrum ball that Danny Care transformed into a converted try.
Given how England were similarly dominated by Fiji in late August, they have a whole heap of improvement to do if they are to be smiling at full-time next weekend in the south of France.
Is the World Cup plate already in existence?
It emerged in midweek that the so-called tier two nations were not in favour of the Rugby World Cup running some sort of post-pool stage plate event to keep them involved for a longer duration of the next tournament at Australia 2027.
The thing is, you can’t ignore the feeling that France 2023 has very much already staged a plate-type event in that the standards experienced in Pools C and D haven’t mirrored the calibre of the rugby played by France and New Zealand in Pool A and Ireland and South Africa in Pool B.
Next weekend’s quarter-finals in Paris are essentially semi-finals in all but name compared to the rival schedule in Marseille and while you can’t rustle up a ticket for love nor money for either of those in-demand games at Stade de France, the official Rugby World Cup website had plenty of tickets available for the Velodrome games featuring Wales and England on successive days.
It’s an expensive business following England around France, no more than it is supporting the other nations, but it seems as it there is a limit at the minute to the amount of bluntness English fans are prepared to shell out for when it comes to the Borthwick blueprint.
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
93 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
93 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
146 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
93 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
93 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
93 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
93 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
93 Go to commentsI'm happy for the people of SA to get a second WC. And I mean that. I was very disappointed with this man's “stand on the hand” incident with Josh Van Der Flyer (Ireland). Ireland's downfall in the last WC was they did not rotate their first 15 as the head coach probably should have. That said, I'm happy for SA and genuinely hope it lifts the mood in their country. Ireland did beat them in the first match of the tournament. And before the trolls start trolling ….. please don't bother. Etzbeth said recently that the Irish players said after the match “see you in the final”…..this was actually wishing the SA team the best of luck in the rest, the Irish team were not dismissing the AB’s. This is what Etzbeth was implying. But he was wrong. I no longer live in Ireland. But I hope to see them lift that cup before I pass. Anyway, congratulations SA. 👍
12 Go to commentsMore bloody click bait. Dan Carter has said absolutely nothing. As he should do. Poor journalism again from a site that should know better
9 Go to commentsOh god please help these loosers get over it!!!! You lost. Doesn't matter how many times you dummies are gonna analyse the game, you still lost and we are still Rygby World Champions….get over it, you lost.
93 Go to commentsThe next Willie le Roux. SA are made not to use him.
3 Go to commentsDan has always been as controversial as tea with milk so we were never going to get any definitive answer. So DMac for the win.
9 Go to commentsGoodness. When are the All Blacks and New Zealand commentators going to stop complaining about how they could have won and just try to win next time 😂. In South Africa if you lose you get up and try again. Get over it.
93 Go to commentsHonestly, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. RSA has a ton of experienced talent in its leadership group. I am more interested in who is the new 8 man/8 men and the younger props. The captain may change but the system does not
1 Go to comments“See you in the final” can mean whatever you want it to mean. To me it means that 12 Irish rugby players are a bunch of poeses. See y’all in Pretoria.
146 Go to commentsBen, you are one of the most arrogant and self opionated rugby critics I have ever come across (next to Keohane). I hoped that after SA beating the best ranked teams in the world on their way to the WC (something not done before) that you might have the grace to admit that this is a special team that deserved the accolades coming their way. You have no humility and as has been been already pointed out, merely a troll to attract audience numbers. Count me out in the future.
93 Go to comments‘War of independence’. Such a grand name for a few skirmishes. Where were all the great battles of this ‘war’ ? Smith got goosebumps as he was being emotionally manipulated, another mushroom.
1 Go to commentsFor all those disputing the veracity of Etzebeth’s very public recollections of the Irish players’ comments, I have one question: should we be holding our collective breath in anticipation of a barrage of strenuous denials from the Irish squad? Then again, perhaps not…
146 Go to comments