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England’s superb final 10 minutes against New Zealand, when they surged back from 25-6 down to salvage a draw, showed both what Eddie Jones’ side could be, and how far they still have to go.
First, the positive points.
Marcus Smith sparked that glorious late chaos with a lovely break that finished only when he was tackled just short of the line. Beauden Barrett infringed, referee Mathieu Raynal showed him yellow, Will Stuart scored England’s first try and suddenly the game was changed.
I hope Marcus gets the chance to reflect over the next couple of days on how he wants to play Test rugby.
In that final 10 minutes, he had that ‘he who dares wins’ attitude, bringing the creativity combined with accuracy that England were crying out for.
There is a lot of experience around him in that England backline, but I hope he will realise that, with 16 caps under his belt, he is good enough and experienced enough to dictate the team’s tempo.
Now, the down side of that finale.
When I watched Smith kick that ball out of play on the final play of the match, it stopped me in my tracks.
It made me really question England’s mentality. Are they happy with a draw? They had a choice to take them on and use the momentum to snatch a famous victory. They seemed to have won the referee round, they had New Zealand rattled, the least they could have done was work through some phases and see if they could make some progress downfield.
New Zealand were a man down and flagging. They wouldn’t have been committing people to the breakdown to turn over ball or force a potentially match-winning penalty.
It blew my mind that England wouldn’t even have a go. I don’t know where the decision came from, but someone somewhere had clearly made the call to claim the kick-off and kick straight out.
I want the team to have a different mindset. I wanted them to sense they had the upper hand and ruthlessly exploit the position they were in rather than cash in on the scoreline they had.
A draw against New Zealand, considering where England were, was an admirable result, but it could have been even better.
New Zealand were so incredibly precise in the first half. They unravelled England completely. They were attacking them in key areas and targeting key players.
Ellis Genge came under huge pressure against Tyrel Lomax in the scrum, going back at a rate of knots. Jack van Poortvliet, making only his third Test start, was clearly another they had in their sights.
The All Blacks made use of their height advantage out wide with crossfield kicks to the wings. Their own ball was being recycled really fast, denying England the time to organise in defence, never mind race off the line. They were getting in over the top of the tackled man and spoiling or stealing England’s possession.
They completely nailed it in the first half, while England looked really one-dimensional, hoping their one-out runners could bully New Zealand backwards. That doesn’t cut it at the top level any more. Argentina showed earlier in the autumn that they could soak up heavy-duty ball-carriers and keep their shape still.
The opening score after two minutes came from New Zealand’s planning and analysis. Dalton Papali’i’s interception of Van Poortvliet’s pass was something they had planned for, with the flanker flying out of the line to poach. That was no accident. That was super-smart homework.
It has a tough afternoon for Van Poortvliet. I felt for him. He has only made a handful of starts in the Premiership. You can really feel that step up to playing one of the top teams in the world. You can play well against Argentina or Japan, but everything happens that half-second quicker against a team like New Zealand. The margins for error are shaved down to the lowest level.
I thought he did well after a tough opening 20 minutes. That setback, getting scragged by Ardie Savea at the back of the breakdown, will have preyed on his mind. But the 21-year-old managed to rediscover some flow to his game before Ben Youngs came on in the second half.
That experience will only make him a better player. He will come out of it tougher and stronger.
England were clinging on to avoid a drubbing in that first half, but the depth of your bench, the strength of your replacements, is so important in modern Test rugby. England won that area by a country mile.
The change of the front row – bringing on Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Stuart around 55 minutes – strengthened the scrum. David Ribbans and Jack Willis were full of energy in the back five of the pack. Ben Youngs brought a cool head to nine, and Henry Slade put in another good cameo in the centres alongside fellow replacement Guy Porter.
It will make the selection for Saturday’s meeting with South Africa very interesting indeed, because that was the type of contest which is closest to a World Cup semi or final. It was the sort of game that will have moved some of the squad’s personal stocks considerably in Jones’ eyes before France 2023.
