Sir Clive Woodward slams Steve Borthwick’s ‘criminal’ and ‘decisive’ mistake in ‘totally avoidable’ All Blacks defeat
England head coach Steve Borthwick and an insert of Sir Clivewood.
Former England head coach Sir Clive Woodward has slammed the manner in which Steve Borthwick used his replacements against the All Blacks.
England fell to a narrow 24-22 defeat to the All Blacks after George Ford missed a penalty and a last-gasp drop goal to seal the win over New Zealand.
This was after England went into an eight-point lead through the boot of Marcus Smith in the 59th minute of the match, with the fly-half promptly replaced shortly afterwards along with his half-back partner Ben Spencer.
That was a turning point in the game as Ford would go on to miss not only those two kicks but also a tackle on Mark Tele’a, who grabbed his second try of the game which Damian McKenzie converted to put the All Blacks ahead.
Woodward believes that England were the team in control of proceedings at Twickenham Stadium before Borthwick made the substitutions and says that he was left “genuinely angry” by the hosts falling to a third defeat to the All Blacks this year.
“Absolute madness”
He added that Borthwick’s “methods” must be questioned as the game was there for the taking. This has been somewhat of an issue for England recently as in both Tests against the All Blacks in July, they were in a position to win but ultimately failed to do so.
For Woodward, it was Borthwick’s seemingly “premeditated substitutions” that cost the side dearly with Spencer and Smith replaced by Harry Randall and Ford with a quarter of the match to go with Chandler Cunningham-South following soon after.
“It was absolute madness. Not only was that trio standing out in an error-strewn yet titanic game, but they were also not fatigued in any way, shape or form,” he wrote in his Sports Mail column.
“When Smith sat down on the bench, he almost looked around and shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘Is that it? Is that me done?’
“For the first three quarters of the game, England were — on the whole — in control. The All Blacks scored two nice tries, but they made plenty of errors. Their discipline was poor.”
He added that with an eight-point advantage replacing the trio was a “criminal and decisive mistake”.
“In international rugby, you cannot simply contain an opponent and look to hang on to your advantage,” he continued.
“You have to earn the victory for the full 80 minutes. This is not a personal criticism of any individual player, more of a team tactic driven by the head coach.
“Taking off Spencer and Smith was a daft decision. The same applies to the England front row, because New Zealand’s replacement props got on top at the set-piece and that gave them the platform and field position to win it at the death.
“When Ford came on, he was waving his hands and urging the team to calm down. To me, it sent entirely the wrong message. The message was, ‘We’re going to hold on to this now’ rather than ‘We’re going to continue to play and win the game’.”
Borthwick should face tough questions
Woodward adds that the bigwigs at the RFU should be putting “tough questions” to Borthwick about the team’s inability to close out the tight Test matches.
While England fell short in the final quarters of their July internationals against the All Blacks, the former head coach does not believe that Borthwick’s replacement tactics were the reason for those defeats but at Twickenham, it was.
“Coaching at international rugby is about feel. It is not a simple game of mathematics. If the key to winning Test matches was replacing certain players at certain times, then anybody would be able to do it. International coaching cannot be — and will never be — about premeditated replacements,” Woodward added.
Smith’s departure was particularly telling in the former head coach’s view as he did add that there is “nothing wrong with not bringing everyone on from your bench” but he went felt that the Quins playmaker was in control.
“He was in control of the England ship and it was sailing on smooth waters,” he wrote.
“When he departed, all of a sudden the sea became choppy, and New Zealand were given a sniff of victory when there was previously none.
Huge credit to them for taking it. For England, this pain should hurt, and hurt for a very long time, predominantly because defeat was totally avoidable and of their own making.”
