England great now ‘expects’ to beat All Blacks and Springboks despite ‘frustrating’ New Zealand tour
England team in a huddle after All Blacks defeat, and former centre Mike Tindall.
Rugby World Cup winner Mike Tindall says that England should “expect” to beat the All Blacks and Springboks this November after making significant strides over recent months.
Steve Borthwick’s men endured an inauspicious couple of years at the end of Eddie Jones’ tenure, but reached the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup.
They then struggled at the start of the 2024 Six Nations but improved as the competition went on, beating Ireland and losing narrowly to France.
The tour to New Zealand was a chance to see whether the Red Rose had indeed progressed, and the signs were positive despite a 2-0 series defeat.
Narrow losses
England pushed the All Blacks all the way in both Tests, eventually going down 16-15 and 24-17 in Dunedin and Auckland respectively.
As a result, Tindall sees no reason why Borthwick’s charges can’t secure a clean sweep when they take on New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Japan later this year.
“For England, this autumn series they’re playing all the big dogs again. At home, you’ve got to be expecting at Twickenham to take all of those,” he said on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“Realistically, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be winning all of those at home. I think that’s where they are, I think that’s where this team should be aiming.
“We’ve got enough talent there, I think we’ve had some players that have really stepped up. We’ve talked about Feyi-Waboso, we’ve talked about Freeman, all these guys first year internationals yet they’re acting like they’re seasoned pros.”
The head coach has settled on the majority of his combinations over the past few weeks, but there is still a debate over the fly-half battle after Marcus Smith’s excellent displays in New Zealand.
“We’re going to see where we go with our fly-half, that’s going to be interesting to see who’s going to continuously win that battle, whether it’s going to Marcus, whether it’s going to be Fin Smith that comes in. You’ve still got George Ford knockout around,” Tindall said.
“You’ve got three genuine contenders for that. Is Steve just going to stick with one and go, ‘right, get consistency, this is how we’re going to play.’
“Does chopping and changing doesn’t really work? We need to try and get some consistency, so he’s probably going to have to pin his hopes to someone.
“You’ve found a centre pairing beginning to find their feet because they’ve got consistency in selection, and they know that they’re going to play together.
“I think we’ve got a back three that can rival anyone now in terms of what they can do, and our pack’s always been up to match.”
Front-row issues
England’s main concern comes in the front-row which was monstered by the All Blacks in the scrum in both Tests.
“Yes, we’re talking about that front-row and what goes on there. That is the only area we need to shore up and figure out what we’re going to do with. I like the balance of the team throughout,” he said.
“If we’re talking like that then you’ve got to expect to win those home games, and you’ve got to be able to take everyone on.”
Those set-piece issues perhaps cost them the chance of victory in New Zealand, and Tindall believes that there will be regrets after not coming away with at least one win.
“That’s going to be the frustration for them. They’re going to go back genuinely thinking they’d missed an opportunity to take a scalp that would be very meaningful,” he added.
“I know everyone immediately in the press conferences said: ‘At least we’ve got a great team that we can build on and this has been an experience we can build on’, but it would have been far better if you had a win under the belt as well.”
