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The Steve Borthwick reaction to a cruel England defeat
By Liam Heagney at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
England boss Steve Borthwick has defended his decision to whip off his starting half-backs at a critical juncture in Saturday’s agonising 22-24 Autumn Nations Series defeat to New Zealand. The Allianz Stadium hosts were 22-14 ahead when Borwthick called ashore Ben Spencer on the hour, with Marcus Smith following him to the sidelines just three minutes later.
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That partnership had been critical to an impressive England comeback from a 6-14 deficit 28 minutes into the November series opener, both players kicking points off the tee, while Smith also embarked on a rollicking intercept break to set to Immanuel Feyi-Waboso for a lead-taking 44th-minute try.
Despite that contribution, Borthwick opted to send on Harry Randall and George Ford and the pair were unable take England to victory. Ford, who had been short on minutes with his club Sale, was at fault for a missed tackle for Mark Tele’a 76th-minute try and he then missed penalty and drop goal attempts.
“When you have got players of the calibre of those guys, the guys who came off the bench, look at the threat that Harry Randall is and the experience that George Ford brings… Ultimately we were in a position to win that game,” he said.
Regarding the game’s final scrum where England couldn’t create a drop goal chance from the set-piece as the pack came under fierce pressure, the head coach reckoned: “There is lot of experienced players on the pitch, they know what we are trying to do. We know what we were trying to do and we get in a position to almost convert it and didn’t miss by too much.
“If you look over the last period of time, the team’s drop goal situation has been pretty successful [versus Ireland last March, for example]. We weren’t today but ultimately this was the width of a post. That’s the reality, this is the width of a post, the result goes one way or the other and that’s the nature of Test rugby. There were two good teams there today.
“To be in a position to be winning by the margin that the team were at that point of time, there was clearly an opportunity to win the game. There were some pretty clear things why we didn’t against a very good New Zealand team. We gave them a window to get back and they took it.
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“It’s important to recognise how much went right. If you look at this New Zealand team and you have got to credit them, 10 players from the World Cup final were playing there, more than 1,000 caps.
“They had more caps in their 15 than we had in our 23 but this England team, led by Jamie (George) , really played smart rugby. Unfortunately, yes, we didn’t get the win we wanted by everyone can see this team has developed into being a very strong team.”
Im a Kiwi fan. England were awesome today. Could have won. Any other day Ford nails it. Its a game of cms. I expect Borthwick will win more and more with this team.
Ford completely took the energy out the game for us, waving his hands telling people to calm down. Just for us to die off and lose the momentum.
Bringing him on all the time to ‘close out’ games is condescending to Smith. Get Ford out and let Marcus Smith & Fin Smith run the show. The future is them so give them the keys and let them get on with it.
I might be remembering the is wrong but I think it was fin smith who got carved up by BB at Eden park in the last 20 back in July.
There’s nothing much between these two teams, the ABs won’t get away with this sort of luck very often.
Dare I say, all 3 wins were a bit tin arse.
Just a few thoughts. England stopped playing with 20 minutes on the clock, holding only an 8-point advantage. Ford kept telling everyone to calm down and just kicked all the possession away. Why didn’t Slade take the final kick, being left-footed? England went back to their usual style: a lot of box kicks and very little in attack. New Zealand deserved to win.
Played 3, lost 3 against NZ in 2024. Borthwick win ratio of 55%, vs 73% for his predecessor.
The discussion should be about how to build a winning record, not about the excuses for losing.
BTW - the kick that hit the upright missed the centre line of the posts by over 2.8m.