Nick Evans: England are no longer just hard to beat, I’m worried for the All Blacks
England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and an inset of ex-All Blacks fly-half Nick Evans.
Former All Blacks fly-half Nick Evans is wary of the threats that England pose to Scott Robertson’s side, having become more than just a team that is difficult to beat.
New Zealand have won each of their three encounters against England under Robertson’s tutelage, but all of those wins have come by a margin of seven points or less.
Steve Borthwick’s charges also head into the fixture on a nine-game winning streak and look to have added a few more strings to their bow since the teams last met in November last year.
Evans has a keen insight into the England players through his role with PREM Rugby club Harlequins, while he also had a stint in Borthwick’s coaching staff.
Worry for the All Blacks
Appearing on the GBR podcast, the ex-playmaker was asked whether he was a confident former All Black ahead of the showdown at the Allianz Stadium
“I’ll be honest and get off the fence. I’m a little bit worried,” he replied.
“England are in a pretty good place. They’ve put in some good performances, have good cohesion in the squad, and there’s a bit of confidence about them, a bit of swagger, which is good from an England fan perspective.”
While the 45-year-old believes that England are confident, he is concerned about how Robertson’s charges have been slipping up in recent Test matches.
“Looking at it as a New Zealand fan, I’ve enjoyed a couple of periods of their performances, but again, like the attacking team of Scotland at the weekend put us under a lot of pressure, discipline is causing us a lot of issues at the moment. Leroy Carter’s trip, you just can’t get away with that these days,” he continued.
“When we get under pressure, we tend to compound that by giving away a yellow card. And at this level, yellow cards are brutal. Most teams tend to concede points then, unless you’re South Africa, who just batten down the hatches and go the other way.”
Still, he is backing his fellow countrymen to get the job done: “I think it’ll be a good game. I say I’m worried, but I still think New Zealand have got enough to get over the line. It’ll be close, a flip of the coin.”
Jordie Barrett’s absence
The absence of Jordie Barrett is a massive blow, according to Evans, as the All Blacks struggle to nail down a consistent centre pairing. The Quins coach states that not only is Barrett a real asset as a crash ball runner but also a leader in the team.
“We’re starting to get some real dominant carriers in our team. Expect to see Wallace Sititi start, along with Ardie Savea,” he said.
“One of the areas that we’ve started to look at, and we’ve always gone ‘Who’s our next centre pair, and where are we getting the Nonu and Smith or the Frank Bunce and Walter Little combination?’
“Jordie Barrett is a massive loss. It takes away one of the most influential backs leadership-wise, it takes a big dent out of our carriers, and in the midfield, it takes away a big kicking option for us.
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“We will need our nine and 10 to play well. We need to manage the game well because we know the kicks will come from England. Well, I assume the kicks will come from England, maybe not, they might go full joue French, but I doubt it.
“Without being cliche, but it’ll come down to fine moments, but I think our ability to create an opportunity and finish the opportunity may be enough for us to get over the line in a game that’ll be decided by four or five points, I reckon.”
Evans was part of Borthwick’s coaching team for the 2023 Six Nations, the head coach’s first campaign in charge after he took over from Eddie Jones. He returned to his role with Quins after the tournament and hasn’t returned since.
England’s evolution
Commenting on how he has seen the team develop since, Evans explained that Borthwick’s first goal was to make England as difficult to beat as possible and having achieved that now, he is starting to loosen the reins and give the team more freedom to express themselves.
“When I came in, it was Steve’s first campaign. So there was an understanding that Steve was going to make the team hard to beat. Make the team really hard to beat, and that’s a defensive, set-piece point of view; it’s getting your kicking game right, and honestly, that’s how you do it,” he said.
“If you want to be hard to beat, you need to get those foundations in.
“So, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity, which is fine, but I learned so much from Steve in that environment… I learned a lot from that it was an unreal experience. I’m really grateful for that opportunity. Would I have loved to imprint a bit more of what we were at Quins and my kind of philosophy? Yeah. But like that’s just the way it was. It was Steve’s team, and he was building.”
He added: “Now that they have got that, we can see him loosening up a little bit more, and they’re starting to play a little bit more and finding ways to bring other people into the game and selection-wise.
“We’ve seen a certain development around the building blocks that have been put in place; the attacking game is always the most complicated part. How do we get everyone on the same wavelength when Marcus plays? Do we know what we are going to do? The same for Fin Smith and George Ford.
“That’s why you see now that they’re scoring tries and there’s a lot of confidence around, there’s an enjoyment around what they’re doing, and the next couple of weeks will be a real litmus test.”