What a series this turned out to be. Three of the tightest of games, the teams separated by a measly 10 points across all three matches. All three one-score games. The final game coming down to a missed drop goal.
Actually, one penalty and a drop goal attempt but who’s counting (not me). A penalty missed by mere inches, and a drop goal missed due to composure under pressure.
It’s easy to look at this as a simple mistake, but Drop Goals are no joke. For most it feels like an easy win, get the ball, kick the ball, get the points. Simple. But anyone who’s ever tried to kick one in anger knows, that when you’re being charged, when things aren’t quite perfect, the pitch is heavier than usual?
Anything can distract you.
It’s a whole different ball game, and elite level? Forget about it.
Scrum halves pass slightly off? You need to recover, and that’s valuable time gone along with your entire process. Yeah, you might be lucky and snatch it, but you want to control the controllable not chance it that the slightest thing throws you out.
Ford has taken some flak for this, a lonely bereft figure in the midst of celebrating All Blacks and devastated England players. It’s understandable, kickers are there to kick the points, when they don’t they have to bear some criticism. But not all of it.
Borthwick likewise has taken a fair bit of grief, largely for subbing off Smith. Article after article, ex-Cup winning coach, after ex-Cup winning coach. “Get a feel for the game”, “don’t watch the GPS”, there is a multitude of reasons to criticise Ford and Borthwick. Everyone has an opinion, this is how it goes. I’m no different.
All that said. England we’re in a position to win, so something went right, didn’t it? It did, they stayed in the fight and despite not scoring tries for fun managed to build an 8 point lead.
So England are 8 points clear. How did New Zealand claw the game back? Well first through capitalising on a poor greedy penalty from Earl bringing them within one. But also by utilising a dominant scrum to win a penalty and create a try-scoring opportunity, they ultimately turned into 7 points.
It’s difficult to see what either of these has to do with Ford being on, or Smith being off the pitch. To assume it’s down to a singular substitution is naivety at its best. Momentum swings for many different reasons.
England made several substitutions in the latter stages of the game and it doesn’t take a genius to see the Scrum took the brunt of the hit. For me, it was absolutely the point where New Zealand took the ascendancy and swung the game back.
At 52 minutes, England rang the changes. Between then and the end of the game, each team had and won 3 scrums. But New Zealand took 2 penalties from their scrum, and England a free kick.
One of England’s three-won scrums is the start of this drop goal sequence. They may have won it, technically. But they were actually demolished and the end result is a messed-up sequence of play that finishes with Ford trying to save the game.
New Zealand wrestled momentum back at exactly the right time, and yet England still came within a whisker of pipping them to the post. But it all comes back to the scrum.
England had a perfect position to do this. a scrum, middle of the pitch about 10m out for the kick.
Why not go for the drop goal off the scrum? Less traffic, fewer chargers, Leniart–Brown’s out of the game due to his sin bin and Roegard has had to drop and defend at 10. There is no chance of 9 pressure on the kicker from the scrum or the pass.
Look no further than that scrum instability. They lack confidence and instead decide to go for a launch play and then play for the penalty. The penalty is an easier kick for Ford. Everywhere within the 22 and between the trams is fair game to him, so it’s not a silly strategy, they just failed to execute.
Be under no doubt, Ford is an excellent drop goal kicker, kicking 3 drop goals vs Argentina in the World Cup, so it’s not a question of skill.
But the small difference of a team that is and isn’t quite settled. In 2023, England was well rehearsed in these processes, here we have a new halfback pairing with Randall fresh on the international scene and they are not quite there.
It happens, games are meant to be won and lost, otherwise, what’s the point of sport?
But these little details are the difference between winning and losing those games. It’s a tough lesson to learn, as anyone who’s lost a tight match will tell you the gnawing feeling inside is all-consuming (at least to start with) but it passes, you elarn, you analyse and you get better.
And this is what England will do, like many teams before them, they’ll face this situation again, just like New Zealand have done in the past and they’ll be better prepared for it.
We hope.
Author: The Dead Ball Area
