Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi explain England's response to the haka
Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi have explained England’s response to the haka moments before their crunch semi-final with New Zealand.
The men in white produced one of their greatest performances to end New Zealand’s bid for a third successive Rugby World Cup, outplaying the defending champions with an epic 19-7 semi-final win in Japan.
England dominated on Saturday from the outset, looked sharper, faster, stronger and more disciplined. The All Blacks had not lost a World Cup match since the 2007 quarter-finals but barely threatened.
The victory sweeps England into their fourth final and first since 2007. They will seek their second cup against South Africa or Wales after their 2003 victory and are still the only northern hemisphere country to triumph.
England scored after 90 seconds through centre Manu Tuilagi and built their lead through brilliant goalkicking by recalled flyhalf George Ford.
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New Zealand, who had won 15 of the teams’ past 16 meetings, managed only a gifted try to flanker Ardie Savea.
After defying officials and lining up against the haka in a V formation, England backed it up once the whistle had sounded with Tuilagi’s try after a sustained, high-paced assault that swept the width of the pitch.
Farrell explained that he felt England had couldn’t let the All Blacks just ‘come at’ them.
REACTION: @owen_faz on @englandrugby's position during the Haka #RWC2019 #ENGvNZL pic.twitter.com/jDlQwchlBp
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 26, 2019
“We knew we had to be within a radius behind them and we wanted to not just stand there and let them come at us. We wanted to keep a respectful distance but we didn’t just want to stand in a flat line and let them come at us.”
“The feeling’s calm. Going into the game, building up to it, we feel in control of what we’re doing and that comes from our preparation. The work that we put in in the week – you can’t fake that when you’re out there in a big test match. When they scored points today, we were the calmest we’ve been after that.”
Hansen casually asks the reporter outside. #ENGvNZL https://t.co/86odTbc0tQ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 26, 2019
Manu Tuilagi described it as an honour to face the haka. “Everyone wanted to show that we were ready and together. It was something different that I think Eddie suggested. It was to show we were ready to accept the challenge against New Zealand and any game against them is tough particularly in a semi-final. You have to make all your tackles, use all the possession really well and we did that today.”
“For me it is an honour to stand in front of the haka and I watched it growing up as a kid and you want to do it yourself. To see them do it again, it is an unbelievable feeling. It is a challenge and you respect it and accept it.”
Hard-tackling Underhill chimed in, saying: “We know the haka is the New Zealand team laying down the challenge and we wanted to show in a small way that we were up for it.”
It was undoubtedly the biggest win of Eddie Jones’ tenure as @EnglandRugby head coach
– @alexshawsport rates the England players #ENGvNZL https://t.co/Vyfsov38Qe
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 26, 2019
All Blacks captain Kieran Read claimed the haka and its response had no effect on the game. “The haka had no impact on the game. They dominated the breakdown and we couldn’t work into our game and we were chasing. They did a good job. The boys really wanted it. You could see it in the first half, we conceded and we hung in there. It is pretty gutting when it doesn’t go your way.”
England set the template for the half, with dual playmakers Farrell and Ford full of speed and creativity. The All Blacks, who hardly ventured into England’s 22, would have been relieved to reach halftime only 10-0 down after Ford kicked a late penalty and an Underhill try was ruled out by the TMO.
Eddie Jones or Emilio Estevez #ENGvNZL pic.twitter.com/ch6R8FgXBY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 26, 2019
The only previous time New Zealand had failed to score in the first half of a World Cup match was when they were beaten by Australia in the 1991 semis. A year ago, they came back from 15-0 down at Twickenham to triumph 16-15.
England piled on the pressure immediately in the second half, but suffered another TMO setback when Ben Youngs’ try was ruled out for a knock-on after six minutes.
A Ford penalty made it 13-0 as New Zealand continued to make rare mistakes. But they were invited back into the game when, for the first time, England’s lineout went wrong and Jamie George threw the ball straight into the arms of Savea, who fell over the line.
England hit back immediately after a huge hit on Jordie Barrett by Underhill forced a knock-on and, from the subsequent attack, New Zealand offended on their line again and Ford kicked another penalty to make it 16-7.
Ford, taking over kicking duties after Farrell had been hit hard in the first half, added another to give England breathing space and, led by the extraordinary Maro Itoje, they continued to tackle strongly as the All Blacks became desperate but ran out of time.
– AAP/additional reporting RugbyPass
WATCH: World Rugby’s highlights from the England versus New Zealand semi-final
Comments on RugbyPass
Pls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
124 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
124 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
124 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
124 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
4 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to comments