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Lawes, Itoje outline where it agonisingly went wrong for England
Neither Courtney Lawes nor Maro Itoje were shy in Saturday night’s post-game mixed zone when it came to identifying what they felt was the reason for England not dethroning South Africa, the Rugby World Cup title holders.
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The 2019 champions chased down a 15-6 deficit in the final minutes to clinch a 15-16 comeback win and book their place in next Saturday’s final against the All Blacks.
Both Lawes and Itoje were standout England performers, rising to the occasion and getting their team to within a whisker of reaching a decider no one gave them a chance of making before the tournament started.
England led 12-6 at the interval, but Lawes said: “We gave away too many penalties in the second half. Fine margins, it is one of those things. We gave it everything we had and we can be quite proud of that.”
According to Itoje, the half-time message was: “Just to execute the game plan, to try to raise the intensity. We knew it was going to go up, so it was about executing our game plan and being disciplined.
“There were things we could have been more alive to,” he added, reflecting on the decisive concession of 10 late points. “They scored from that lineout move, we should have been more alive to that, and a couple of penalties up the field where we should have been a bit sharper.
“But they are a good team. Every team you play against is going to have a moment. We are just gutted… The whole plan was to put them under pressure. We accomplished that in the first half, we wanted to challenge them and we did that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”
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Back to Lawes. “Their set-piece came through in the end, that is something they can very much rely on. Their bench definitely brought an impact onto the pitch. we knew that could be the case and we unfortunately didn’t deal with it well enough.
“It’s disappointing because we should have won it. We were the better team on the day but congrats to them. They found a way to win and that is what you have to do sometimes.”
Itoje added: “Very sad. A lot of effort, a lot of passion, a lot of time and dedication has gone into this World Cup from our side, but I’m proud of the effort, how hard we fought out there. We were a couple of minutes away from executing the game plan pretty well. It was sad but we have to dust ourselves off and move on.”
The 22-year-old George Martin packed down for just his fourth Test start. Lawes was impressed by how the rookie played.
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“I just spoke to him and said I’m very much looking forward to watching his career. Incredible game, it just shows his maturity as a player. He’s 22, the same age as me when I had my first World Cup. He is going to be here for a long time.”
England, though, aren’t yet finished at France 2023 as they have next Friday’s bronze medal match versus Argentina to contest.
Lawes insisted his team will get back up for that game against a team they beat 27-10 in Marseille at the start of the tournament last month.
“I don’t think it will be too difficult (to pick the boys up). It’s really important for us to finish on a high. Obviously, we don’t know the team yet but a lot of boys that are on this tour won’t represent their country again, so it’s very important we finish where we started.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
233 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
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