THREE MOMENTS THAT SHOW HOW FAR BORTHWICK’S ENGLAND HAVE COME IN A YEAR
It all boils down to belief. This was a word you heard over and over again following England’s riotous 33-19 victory against New Zealand.
“The guys just have utter belief now,” Steve Borthwick, the head coach, said. “If we go down on the scoreboard, I have utter belief in the senior guys that their team becomes composed, resilient and finds a way through it.”
Their faith was tested. Plenty of familiar ghosts started swirling around Twickenham in the final quarter as New Zealand rallied to within a score, as they had 12 months ago. England also faced a brand new set of problems, unprecedented in the Borthwick era, having slipped in a 12-0 hole while New Zealand picked apart their line-out.
They had every reason to resign themselves to a fate suffered by so many England teams who fell just short of knocking off the All Blacks. To think, this is just what happens here.
Instead, they resolutely banished those doubts and demons by delivering the definitive victory of the Borthwick reign that took his winning run to 10 games. “Belief is a huge thing,” Maro Itoje, the captain, said. “When you believe, then you can find a way.”
The start
Borthwick’s team selection of backloading his replacements with six British and Irish Lions was predicated upon swinging the contest in the final quarter. The gamble was that England could already be out of the contest by that stage, which seemed a stark possibility when they were 12-0 down inside 20 minutes.
England had actually started brightly, but as has been a constant feature of their performances this year had not converted their opportunities in the red zone, Sam Underhill just failing to get his offload away to Ollie Lawrence while Immanuel Feyi-Waboso was turned over in the 22. New Zealand, by contrast, demonstrated an all-too familiar clinical edge with their chances with two tries in two 22 entries by Leicester Fainga’anuku and Codie Taylor.
This was unfamiliar territory for England. The biggest deficit they had previously overcome under Borthwick was Italy’s 10-0 lead in a 2024 Six Nations game.
“When you’re 12-0 down, 12 minutes or whatever it was, you can think, ‘well, this wasn’t part of the plan’,” Itoje said. “We didn’t plan to be 12-0 down, we wanted to go out there, we wanted to convert, we wanted to score tries. So you can quickly think, ‘well, this is not part of the plan’. Then it can seem like a huge mountain to climb. Or you think, ‘OK, with this situation, let’s just play rugby, let’s just get the next score, let’s just get the next positive’. And you can build from there.”
This is precisely what England did. After 23 minutes, Lawrence summoned the spirit of Manu Tuilagi circa 2012 to skittle Leroy Carter and Beauden Barrett. There followed a pair of perfectly executed drop goals by George Ford, even as England’s attack seemed to be fizzling out.
“It’s just probably a way of saving the lads’ legs because it’s tough,” Ford said. “We’re defending and we’re trying to get field position. And then we’re asking them to attack and carry and get up off the ground, where the lads are pretty thankful sometimes when you kick one and they can have a bit of a rest after it.”
That ensured England went in at half-time 12-11 down, but definitely in the ascendancy. “I think at that point to take that chance for the try and the two drop goals to create a situation where we are 12-11 at half-time,” Borthwick said. “I think the players felt at that point that every time they are in the 22, they felt they could score. We didn’t obviously take all those opportunities, but I think they came in at half-time with a huge amount of belief.”
The line-out
A feature of England’s first-half struggles, which continued through the second, was the line-out going into freefall. An absolute non-negotiable of Borthwick’s key to success has been line-out security. According to stats from Opta, England’s average line-out success was 90 per cent coming into this game.
New Zealand clearly had a plan to attack England’s main strength by picking 6ft 5in Simon Parker at blindside flanker. This bore an echo of Steve Hansen’s decision to select Scott Barrett in the same position for the 2019 World Cup semi-final as an extra line-out jumper. This time Robertson’s ploy worked a treat. Jamie George is one of the best line-out operators in world rugby but every throw was challenged by New Zealand’s spring-heeled jumpers. Even when Luke Cowan-Dickie came on, New Zealand continued to disrupt the line-out so England’s maul – one of their main attacking weapons – was barely a feature.
In total, England lost six of 14 line-outs, meaning they had only won 57 per cent of their own throws. Under Borthwick, they had only once dipped under 70 per cent – against Wales in a World Cup warm-up game. According to Opta, the last tier-one team to win with a line-out percentage that low was Australia against South Africa in the 2022 Rugby Championship.
While England’s players are not due back into camp until Tuesday in preparation for Sunday’s match against Argentina, the review is not likely to be pretty. “That’s tomorrow’s problem,” George said. “Right now, I honestly couldn’t care less that we lost line-outs.”
There were plenty of trade-offs. England dominated the scrum and got the better of the breakdown battle, much as they did in 2019, but for Borthwick to pull off his signature win with a barely functioning line-out almost defies belief.
The inflexion point
England maintained their momentum from the first half into the second, scoring two expertly worked tries through Underhill and Fraser Dingwall to jump out to a 25-12 lead. Right on the hour mark, England were hunting a fourth try to kill the game when Tom Curry spilt the ball inside the New Zealand 22. Damian McKenzie brilliantly kicked downfield, where Marcus Smith conceded a penalty for holding on. A couple of line-out drives and a harsh yellow card for Ben Earl later and full-back Will Jordan strolled over to make it a one score game at 25-19. England supporters would have had every reason to panic at this point.
Go back 12 months. England were leading New Zealand 22-14 at the 60-minute mark, only for a McKenzie penalty to make it 22-17 following Earl’s no-arms tackle. Errors compounded errors culminating in the appalling set-up for Ford’s drop-goal attempt, after which victory slipped through their fingers. “There were just small moments, small lapses that in the magnitude of the game end up being hugely significant,” Borthwick said at the time.
This time England did not blink. “That’s what Test matches do,” Ford said. “It challenges you in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s a scoreboard, sometimes it’s things like yellow cards and things like that. But it’s how you can deal with it and remain calm and composed in the moments, not let it escalate into something bigger than what it should do, really.
“We were in there, 22, and then within a flash, we were on our own line and we got a yellow card. And they’re the things that could derail you as a team. But again, I thought we remained calm and composed then.”
Then with five minutes to go, Wallace Sititi is penalised for jumping across England’s line-out, giving Ford the chance to restore the two-score lead and effectively win the game. The position was almost identical from the penalty in which he hit a post 12 months ago against the same opposition. This time, the kick bisects the posts to give England the victory, with Tom Roebuck’s score adding further gloss to the scoreline.
Whatever aura the All Blacks have lost, this still very much counts as the statement victory of the Borthwick era, not just for the opposition they were facing, but for the belief needed to overcome obstacles, both old and new.
“I think it builds belief,” Itoje said. “I think it’s vindication of hard work. It builds trust in the plan, it builds trust in one another. You look to your left and to your right and the trust and belief and the bond between your team-mates becomes stronger as a result of being able to get these wins. We want to build, we want to build.”
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