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It would be interesting to be in the England team’s debriefing following their narrowest of defeats by New Zealand in Dunedin on Saturday. In line with the ubiquitous modern trend of only positive coaching, they will, with justification, look at the encouraging aspects of their performance, and there were many, but the overall mood towards the loss and what to do about it will be even more telling.
Of all the observations to make, the first should be that England matched New Zealand for most of the 80 minutes when it came to the intensity and pace of the game. When you watched the Australia v Wales game that followed, England’s overall effort was of a higher level than both those teams and it matched the standard of the South Africa v Ireland Test later that day. It was evidence that the level they set in the games against Ireland and France in this year’s Six Nations was not an aberration but a base on which to build.
England’s back three represented an attacking threat, particularly in the first half, and the work of George Furbank and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso gave them impetus when they committed to counter-attacks. Alex Mitchell was sharp in his delivery and the back row scrapped well in the loose. George Martin and Maro Itoje looked like a much more experienced second-row pairing than their number of starts together suggests.
Above all, their positive approach to the game was miles above the stodgy efforts that were recorded at the beginning of Steve Borthwick’s reign. England’s all-round discipline was also much better and they gave away few unnecessary penalties around the breakdown. All of which was bolstered by England continuing to make progress in defence. The outside blitz caught New Zealand behind the gain-line several times and it was maintained for most of the game.
England got on the wrong side of the referee at scrum time
As for the negatives, well, they showed the fine margins by which Test-match fates are decided. Last week I highlighted areas in which England needed to excel if they were to beat the All Blacks. To be honest, they did not require great insight to be noted, but they did turn out to be correct.
England’s scrum got on the wrong side of the referee but, as pinpointed by Sky Sports’ co-commentator David Flatman, that was because Nika Amashukeli failed to notice that Ethan de Groot was illegally shifting outside Will Stuart and driving straight upwards. I am not knocking the Kiwi loosehead – you get away with what you can in the front row. However, to get a handle on this you either have to make it a flashpoint that the referee has to deal with, or Stuart has to bore into the opposition hooker and drive inside De Groot, both of which, by the way, are also illegal. It is not the MO of Borthwick to publicly complain about this sort of thing, but he should at least raise it via official channels in private.
In the second half, New Zealand got the better of the aerial exchanges, not by a lot but enough to win the ball from several of their kick-chases. This does not sound much but succeeding here is the difference between turning the ball over and retaining it 40 metres upfield. If you do this more regularly, the territorial battle and momentum swings in your favour, and in close games this is, and was, important.
Smith did not strike the ball well
What needs to be understood is that to this small shift you have to add factors like breakdown mistakes. England were mostly good in this area but breakdown errors in the 45th, 53rd, 56th and 68th minutes added to their difficulties and because of these marginal losses they fell short. It would be correct to claim that had Marcus Smith kicked his goals England might have won but New Zealand also missed kicks. What must have disappointed Smith most is that he did not strike the ball well, on top of the inaccuracy.
However, in trying to discern the reasons for defeat you also need to look more deeply than the kicking stats, and the above points are all valid.
I return to the initial question about England’s mood in defeat. A basic summary of the question to be answered is this – are they satisfied with a good effort against a decent All Blacks team, in a country where England have not won since 2003? Or are they angry about letting the chance slip against beatable opposition and determined to put it right on Saturday? You might say this is not a binary choice, but the forthcoming Eden Park challenge will be far harder than Dunedin, and the mindset that will propel them to the next level of performance needs it to be the latter, not the former.
All Blacks scrummaged illegally but England let chance to win slip
Second Test will be tougher than Dunedin defeat but New Zealand are beatable and Steve Borthwick’s side have to go in with the right mindset