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For England, it has become a familiar feeling. For the third time this year, Steve Borthwick’s side let a game slip away, squandering a golden opportunity to claim a rare victory over the All Blacks as George Ford twice missed his spot-kick in the final minutes .
After Mark Tele’a’s brilliant finish and Damian McKenzie’s superb touchline conversion gave New Zealand the lead, Ford had an early chance to snatch victory from the start as Anton Lienert-Brown was penalized for a high tackle.
When his penalty hit the upright, that seemed to be it. However, a touch from Patrick Tuipulotu gave England one last opportunity.
This set up the ideal scenario to initiate a winning play: a midfield scrum about 10 yards from the opposition line.
So what went wrong in the path to Ford’s failure? Here, The Independent analyzes England’s errors in these final moments.
1. The scrum
A worrying trend in England’s recent final-quarter collapses has been their inability to sustain a scrum effort for 80 minutes. This was evident in their semi-final defeat to South Africa at last year’s World Cup, and their problems have not been resolved since, even with varied squads against a very varied opposition.
The starting pack performed well against a strong All Blacks scrum unit, with Ellis Genge and Will Stuart performing well at props. But after both men were replaced by rookie Fin Baxter and veteran Dan Cole, England began to squeak, conceding a couple of free-kick penalties. Worth mentioning here are New Zealand substitutes Pasilio Tosi and the outstanding Tuipulotu, who combined added plenty of mass (260kg) and threat.
For the final scrum, England had Jamie George back on the field after a head injury to Theo Dan, while starting pair George Martin and Maro Itoje packed up the second row. The trio make up England’s best scrum unit, but Tosi attacked the space between George and Baxter, sending the home captain into the air and forcing the rest of the eight to retreat. This put pressure on scrum-half Harry Randall at base.
2. Move on from mistakes
The wobbly scrum forced a hasty extraction from Randall, who panicked a bit under the pressure. England had lined up with their two distributors (Ford and George Furbank) directly behind Ben Earl at No.8, keeping New Zealand guessing by being ready to rush one way or the other if England received a boost. As the ball arrived at the goal, Ford and Furbank rushed to the offensive left, ready to receive Randall’s pass. Just before the scrimmage is set, Ford steps forward to make sure Randall is sure of the call.
The problem is that with his forwards under pressure, Randall felt unable to complete the transfer, with Ardie Savea (positioned on the open side rather than at No.8) quickly out of the fray. The zip nine tries to save the situation by darting to the right, only to find the missing support, and eventually throwing a rushing pass the other way in Ford’s vague direction. The flyhalf manages to gather himself together and avoid total disaster, but a dull tackle from Tuipulotu means England have already lost 10 yards.
From there, Randall reloads impressively, gathering himself and selecting his forward carriers to allow Ford to recover and drop into the pocket. But with the slow ruck ball, England wait and wait to set up a drop goal for the win. When the moment finally arrives, a messy ruck means slow possession and a floaty, slightly inaccurate pass from Randall.
3. The drop goal
Ford manages to master Randall’s handoff, but it takes time to get the ball into position to get the boot on the ball. England’s zigzagging, meanwhile, left many exhausted attackers incapacitated or out of action, leaving little traffic for New Zealand’s would-be blockers to run through in an attempt to thwart Ford’s attempt. Both of these factors leave the kicker under more pressure than he would like, with Cam Roigard practically on Ford as he kicks.
England practice this skill as often as possible in training, with their array of fly-halves working regularly with Jonny Wilkinson and assistant coach Kevin Sinfield. Ford has already shown he is a master of the art, scoring three goals in the victory over Argentina in Marseille at the start of the World Cup.
But it was the veteran playmaker’s first action for a month after suffering a quad injury while playing for Sale against Saracens. Did rust or the lingering impact of this injury play a role? It’s impossible to say for sure, but his effort faltered and faded into thin air, leaving England beaten.
“There are a lot of experienced players on the pitch and they know what we were trying to do,” head coach Borthwick said afterwards. “We were able to almost convert and we didn’t miss too much.
“If you look at the last period, the team in those drop goal situations did pretty well. We weren’t today but ultimately that’s the width of the post. This is reality. It’s the width of the post that makes the result go one way or the other and that’s the nature of Test rugby when you have two good teams.
