Second-half England flex blows All Blacks away in Twickenham

I’ve just had a look at some of the stats and there is one that stands out above anything else - tackles made.

For the entire 6 N’s, ENG averaged 130 tackles with an 85% tackle completion. Since doubling down on the 5x7 strategy, ENG have delivered 190 tackles per game vs AUS & NZ with a 91% tackle completion.

That is an enormous change, which is why our defence has improved so much since the summer.

Attack stats last Autumn were worse but the current attack isn’t that much different. We did have slightly better results in the 6N’s but that also included the WAL game, so excluding that they are probably quite similar.

Really pleased with today’s win, I thought it would be a close game, where ENG’s defence would cause issues but had some doubts if our attack would score enough points but the drop goals really helped and kept the scoreboard ticking over.

This was really a victory for the defence, which looked very strong and whilst a few are going overboard, we were very much 2nd place in the attack stats, so room for improvement as we continue to evolve.

Oh dear Razor! Did Dmac not save you?

The coaches are hopeless.

I’m still def glass half full on our ABs some of our young guns have been going really well and outside backs there can be some easy changes for next squad along with midfield forwards are stacked but 10 is up for grabs imo hopefully Super Love for example gets a good go and earns it need a back up or 2 for Cam, Cortez needs form and Christie a stop gap, know everyone getting Gaga on Pledger but he is young any world Fakatava makes it ?

Wasn’t all box kicking so I enjoyed that match.

England Rugby World Cup 2023 champions, oh what could have been with a display like this.

Well done Ford, still a match to win. Surprised English scrum was so good, is that improvement or still ABs coming into form? Lucky to have Smith on so early, allowed England to play both ways, good credit for a team vilified for these performances in 2024.

Flex, is the author a Yank?

Well played England, highly annoying that the Allblacks coaching staff reselected Proctor to start as a passive centre despite Quinn having been so good, save could be said for the captain.

Sam Underhill. First name on the team sheet. Brilliant.

Will hold my hands up over banging the Fin smith over Ford drum, ford was very good although I still would want fin more often than not, on a more serious note though brilliant by the side a hell of a lot of positives and I thought Dingwall and lawrence in the centres were pretty good today!

Sort of wish we'd get the wings involved that bit more but there's clear improvements from this time last year and that's a big scalp.

Even more positive is furbank back for saints aswell!

Onto the Argentines next week!

Thought BB had a pretty poor game. Surprised Razor didn’t put McKenzie on sooner.

Great win for us though, but a tough game against Argentina still to come.

Glad in the second half we kept the ball in hand a bit more - possibly forced change when Steward was injured. When Earl, Lawrence, IFW, Roebuck are hitting the line at pace England look dangerous. For 10 mins in the first half the ABs had 95% possession because England kicked it back to them every 2 phases. England have got a good kicking game but we need to give ourselves a chance to go through some phases and create pressure before we go to the boot. Found that balance much better as the game progressed, very good performance. Wasn't a vintage ABs team but England put them under pressure.

You’d swear the NZ attack coach has lost interest in his job.