Despondent England beginning to test the patience of many after South Africa loss
Jamie George is desperate for England to 'find the fixes' after latest defeat to South Africa
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Five Test defeats in a row and a third successive loss at home for the first time in 18 years.
It doesn’t make for pretty reading for Steve Borthwick’s men who fell to a 29-20 defeat against South Africa on Saturday.
With one game remaining in the Autumn Nations Series against Eddie Jones’ Japan this coming Sunday, what did we learn from yet another difficult outing for England?
Borthwick out?
“The feeling I get from the RFU is one of absolute support and absolute belief that this team is going in the right direction.”
Those were the words of Steve Borthwick at full-time following a defeat that equals England’s worst run of form since 2018.
This autumn hasn’t gone as planned for this England side with three consecutive defeats at home. Each week, Borthwick and captain Jamie George have been despondent in the way they’ve carried themselves but in the face of defeat, their sense of optimism in their post-match interviews is slowly testing the patience of many.
“This last year has been one of transition for a lot of young players into this England team which I think has an incredibly exciting future,” Bortwick added. “It’s also a transition in the way we’re trying to play. What we’ve got to do is make all those moments count.”
However, looking to the future and ‘building towards something’ isn’t what England fans want to hear and it has led to discussions around whether changes need to be made.
There is clearly talent in this England side and they are pushing teams, but this constant struggle to find the edge to close out games is becoming hard to stomach for some.
But this isn’t a view shared by South Africa captain Siya Kolisi.
“You see the way they played today [Saturday], they made it hard for us. We had to dig deep. We’ve been through this kind of period as well. It will come right for them as long as they just keep going.”
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus echoed Kolisi’s sympathy for England’s situation: “We’ve been there. England have had three southern hemisphere teams now and took them close to the last 10 minutes. If they keep doing what they're doing, we’ll find it tough to break them down.”
Perhaps Kolisi and Erasmus are right. Maybe England aren’t that far away at all? No one really expected Borthwick’s side to beat the world champions at the weekend and they ran them close, but when you put yourself in a position to win a Test match - for three weeks in a row - and you come out on the wrong side of the result, it is unsurprising that patience may be starting to wear thin.
Simple errors
In response to the result, skipper Jamie George said: “All we need to do is find the fixes to closing out those games.”
However, it seems much more than that.
It was an England performance where they had opportunities to win the game - again - but too many simple errors built up to costly mistakes.
This was a significantly ill-disciplined display from South Africa who conceded 14 penalties and were down to 14 men entering the final 10 minutes, but England couldn’t capitalise in any way, shape or form.
Despite having a man advantage and multiple attempts at the lineout, they yet again failed to convert pressure into points. The most agonising of all was the free-kick given against Luke Cowan-Dickie for the dummy throw.
Basic errors like Jack van Poortvliet’s box-kick being charged down, poor handling and, at times, a porous defence, hampered England’s chances and questions have to be asked.
How do they find these magical ‘fixes’ that Jamie George alluded to?
Is this a crisis?
This was the question TNT Sports presenter Craig Doyle posed to Ugo Monye and Courtney Lawes at full-time and there are clear arguments for both sides of the discussion.
Firstly, there are many ready to go to the extreme. Given all of the damning statistics surrounding England’s run of form, it is easy to say that changes need to be made and that there is something seriously wrong with the national set-up.
However, perspective and optimism can go a long way at times and this is a situation that needs both of those things.
Yes, England have lost five Tests in a row but four of those matches have been against both of last year's World Cup finalists. In every single encounter, they have pushed their opposition close with chances to win those games.
There is also still a buy-in from the players, who are vocal in their support in terms of the direction their team is going in. “Over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t got the results, but we’ve been close in all three, particularly today [Saturday] against the two-time [back-to-back] world champions,” full-back Freddie Steward said.
“We believe in what we’re doing and as players, we need to take some responsibility for the end there, and try and win that game.
“He [Borthwick] is an unbelievable coach. He has a great rugby brain, is an unbelievable motivator, man manager, and as players, we believe in everything he’s bringing to this team. The fault today probably lies in our hands.”
So whilst frustrations might boil over as to why England are currently not getting over the line, they are clearly building something which they hope they can get right with more time and effort. They’re not peaking yet, but there is the calibre of talent and a desire to improve.
Battle of the back three
Looking more at the game as a contest, with the run of form England had heading into the match, there was discussion around selection and how Borthwick would choose to operate.
The biggest call he made was in the back three, bringing in both Freddie Steward and Ollie Sleightholme for their aerial prowess.
In that department, Steward performed well but he was skinned by steps from Grant Williams and Cheslin Kolbe, and it was a tactic that the always cunning Rassie Erasmus clearly had in mind.
“We had a good feeling Borthwick would probably go back with Freddie Steward. He’s fantastic in the air and we actually tried not to kick to him.
“We rested them [Kolbe, Aphelele Fassi and Kurt-Lee Arendse] last weekend with this in mind to keep them fresh and they focused on England since Thursday last week.”
With his two tries, Kolbe brought back memories of the 2019 World Cup final using his outstanding stepping ability to send both Steward and Sleightholme to the cleaners. It was that sort of cutting edge which evaded England.
Whichever way you look at it, this was another frustrating outing for Borthwick’s side who will now be more desperate than ever to arrest their losing run against Japan on Sunday.
