Autumn Nations: Steve Borthwick urges England to 'accelerate the learning' after 'width of a post' loss to New Zealand
Published 02/11/2024 at 20:48 GMT
Despite a narrow loss at the hands of New Zealand on home turf, England head coach Steve Borthwick spoke of the positives his side could take from the result. A missed penalty from Sale Sharks fly-half George Ford meant the All Blacks left south-west London with victory in what proved to be a riveting first game of the Autumn Nations Series.
‘Came down to width of a post’ – Borthwick praises ‘magnificent effort’ after narrowest of losses
Video credit: TNT Sports
Steve Borthwick called on England to "accelerate the learning" after their 24-22 loss to New Zealand at Twickenham, extending the All Blacks' winning run at the home of English Rugby to 12 years.
England had two opportunities to win an Autumn Nations thriller in the dying minutes via the boot of George Ford, but both his penalty attempt and drop goal were unsuccessful, handing New Zealand a narrow victory.
"There’s no doubt there are things that we can make sure are improved, but I’d say the players put in a magnificent effort today," Borthwick said afterwards.
"I think these are two very good teams. We talked before the game about our journey to improve and develop and, ultimately, that came down to the width of the post. A little bit further to one side and we win the game."
England had to battle in the first half, with four Marcus Smith penalties keeping the hosts in touch after tries from Mark Tele'a and Will Jordan.
England flew out of the blocks to begin the second half, finding themselves with an eight-point lead on the hour mark after Immanuel Feyi-Waboso's try and another Smith conversion.
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Highlights: Ford misses last-gasp drop goal as New Zealand edge England in thriller
Video credit: TNT Sports
Damian McKenzie kicked New Zealand to within five points with 13 minutes remaining before a second Tele'a try and a successful conversion from McKenzie gave them a two-point lead with three minutes remaining.
"I think there are huge positives to take," Borthwick said. "They had more caps in their starting 15 than we had in our 23. The reality is that we have a young team who are still developing and let me be clear – we’re all disappointed, we wanted to win that game and thought we would win the game.
"We put ourselves in a position to win the game, now we need to accelerate the learning so those narrow wins go our way. We’ll have a good look at this afterwards. There were pretty clear moments in that final 20 minutes, but we’ll also look at how well this team played against a very experienced New Zealand team.
"I’m not going to stand here and say all is fine because we lost the game and we expected to win that game. I thought we could and should win the game, so we’ll make sure to take the learnings from it and improve for next week."
England will aim to bounce back against an out-of-form Australia at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham next Saturday, while New Zealand take the short trip across the Irish Sea to Dublin for a showdown with Ireland on Friday night.
Stream the 2024 Autumn Nations Series on TNT Sports and discovery+
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