Opinion: England in an ‘almighty hole’ after ‘sub-standard’ performance against Springboks
England lock Maro Itoje and an insert of head coach Steve Borthwick.
They woke to tales of million-pound paydays for the world’s top 40 players – and left Twickenham wondering how they will ever get back into that elite bracket.
An England side which so nearly reached the World Cup final when last it played South Africa, slumped to a fifth straight defeat and was condemned as “sub-standard” by former Red Rose star Ugo Monye.
For the third successive Saturday, they were no match for the southern hemisphere when it came to the business end of the game. Just as against New Zealand and Australia, a lead was thrown away.
England in an almighty hole
It leaves England in an almighty hole. Forget next week’s game against Japan, though no match should be considered a gimme for Steve Borthwick’s flailing team right now.
Their first two games of the Six Nations are against Ireland and France, ranked third and fourth in the world. They then face Scotland, another team above them in the rankings, who have not lost at Twickenham since 2017.
“Not far off a crisis,” concluded Monye. “It’ll be one out of four this autumn. That’s awful. Four out of 10 this year. This is so sub-standard for where we expect our team to be.”
England last lost five in a row six years ago, when Eddie Jones needed baling out by a vote of confidence from his employers. They hadn’t lost three straight at home since 2006.
As Jamie George and his team disappeared into the southwest London night they seemed as far as you could imagine from the riches said to be on offer to the stars of the game from a revolutionary global franchise league.
It was so much that we had seen before. Individual brilliance from Marcus Smith undone by blunders elsewhere. Dropped restarts, charged down kicks, dismal defence. That is now 12 tries conceded in three games this autumn.
Once again England flattered only to deceive. Against New Zealand, they built an eight-point lead through 67 minutes only to give it all back and more and still find time to miss two shots at goal at the death.
Against Australia, where they led three times and only had to catch the final restart to close it out, they could not manage that.
And here, despite a flying start, they once more let themselves down. Twice ahead, the second time on the hour, they contrived to allow a Boks team playing with a forward in the sin bin, to prevail.
“It’s tough to watch,” admitted Courtney Lawes, former England skipper now TNT Sports pundit. “Ultimately we’re not cohesive enough as a team. We’re not cohesive in defence, we’re not cohesive in attack so we end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard too often.
“At the minute we’re seeing a few too many mistakes from some of the leaders which then kind of goes on to the younger players and makes them a bit more anxious.
“We’re not seeing these boys play freely. We’ve got the talent in England, we just have to get it out. We have to find the team, we have to find our DNA. At the minute we’re not seeing that.”
Costly errors
Lawes had spoken in the week of the ”genuine antagonism” between the two sets of players following the World Cup meeting last year in which Tom Curry claimed he was racially abused and was mocked for his troubles.
He said England would use that to fuel them and it looked that way early on as they tore out of the blocks, mixing power with, yes, anger. The Springboks wouldn’t know how to take a backwards step but they were rocked back onto their heels.
That was all Smith needed. From a scrum in front of the sticks he shaped to drop for goal, spotted a 3-2 mismatch to the left and hared that way, linking with Henry Slade who put Ollie Sleightholme over.
The fly-half nailed the extras and with Twickenham in a ferment England just needed to back it up with a strong restart. They failed to claim the ball, just as they had at such cost against the Wallabies.
Before they knew it a seven-point lead had turned into a nine-point deficit. The Springbok had been poked, the response was mighty.
Grant Williams flicked the switch, sniping away from a ruck 25 metres out, leaving Chandler Cunningham-South and Ellis Genge for dead before too easily stepping Freddie Steward and outpacing Ollie Lawrence to the line.
Before England could formulate a response, Jack van Poortvliet was charged down by Eben Etzebeth and Smith’s attempt to recover the situation was suffocated by the sprawling Pieter-Steph du Toit, who charged down, then completed the job.
England were all at sea. Manie Libbok spotted Cheslin Kolbe in space out wide and found him with a perfect kick. The winger’s sublime footwork did the rest, leaving Steward in a heap.
Borthwick’s men rallied, with Sam Underhill cutting back against the grain to reduce the deficit to a single score at the break. And after each side had a try chalked off Smith kicked England in front from the penalty spot.
The Boks had been haemorrhaging penalties and were on a warning. Now was the time for cool heads and clear thinking from England.
Instead, Handre Pollard came off the bench to kick a monster goal then convert Kolbe’s second try, a score Sleightholme will not want to watch back. Just like that another match was lost.
“We are close,” protested George. “I couldn’t be more confident [that this team will get it right].”
He has to say that, doesn’t he. But right now, that smacks of little more than wishful thinking.