LONDON – It was hardly a revealing insight, but England rugby coach Steve Borthwick said his team need to get better at closing out tight games as, for the fourth time in five matches, they blew a late lead to go down 24-22 to New Zealand on Nov 2.
England led by eight points after an hour, only for New Zealand to claw their way back ahead after 77 minutes.
Borthwick’s side still had chances to win it as George Ford hit the post with a penalty then sent a drop-goal wide with the last kick of the match.
The defeat came after they led both July games in New Zealand in the last quarter, only to lose, having also been foiled at the death by France in their final game of this year’s Six Nations.
“I recognise the question (of letting games slip) but it’s important to understand also how much went right,” Borthwick said.
“I think we really played smart rugby today. And unfortunately, yes, we didn’t get the win we wanted. But I think everyone would see that this, this team is developed into being a very strong team.
“I was very proud of the effort and endeavour but we have to learn to start getting on the right side of those close results. We gave them a window to get back and they took it. But this England team played really smart rugby today.”
England looked a bit disorganised in trying to set up Ford for his drop goal and his effort never really threatened. Borthwick, however, had no complaints.
“There were a lot of experienced players, they know what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“This team has been pretty successful in those drop goal situations. But the reality is that it’s a width of a post and that the nature of test rugby.”
Borthwick also chose to highlight the credentials of a New Zealand team who lost three of their six Rugby Championship games as they rebuild under new coach Scott Robertson.
“It’s a very good New Zealand team,” he said. “They had 10 players from the World Cup final, more than 1,000 caps. They had more caps in their 15 than our 23.”
Robertson hailed his side’s attacking prowess at Twickenham and believes that victory came down to the All Blacks’ superior try-scoring and late-game know-how.
New Zealand won with two tries from Mark Tele’a, one by Will Jordan and a late Damian McKenzie touchline conversion.
“We probably hit every emotion in the game, and we showed a lot of character, with 15 minutes to go to come from eight points down was a special moment for us as a group,” Robertson said.
The All Blacks, however, will be concerned about injuries to key players suffered during a bruising encounter.
Beauden Barrett and hooker Codie Taylor failed head injury assessments, Robertson said, leaving the All Blacks sweating on their availability for a crunch game against Ireland on Nov 8.
Tele’a was New Zealand’s star finisher while in the forwards flanker Wallace Sititi was irrepressible with several charging breaks and an outrageous offload to set up Tele’a’s opening score.
“Mark Tele’a can score a try, he’s a world-class finisher who knows how to get to the tryline and beat a couple of people to put the ball down,” Robertson added.
New Zealand captain Scott Barrett also agreed that his team’s attacking intent was the difference in the match.
“When they (England) are playing like they have shown this year they are a dangerous team but we maybe played a bit more rugby than them,” he said. REUTERS
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