England’s Borthwick laments another late loss, praises All Blacks

It was hardly a revealing insight, but England coach Steve Borthwick said his team need to get better at closing out tight games as, for the fourth time in five matches, they blew a late lead to go down 24-22 to New Zealand on Saturday.

England led by eight points after an hour, only for New Zealand to claw their way back ahead after 77 minutes.

Borthwick’s side still had chances to win it as George Ford hit the post with a penalty then sent a drop-goal wide with the last kick of the match.

The defeat came after England led both July games in New Zealand in the last quarter, only to lose, having also been foiled at the death by France in their final game of this year’s Six Nations.

“I recognise the question (of letting games slip) but it’s important to understand also how much went right,” Borthwick said.

“I think we really played smart Rugby today. And unfortunately, yes, we didn’t get the win we wanted. But I think everyone would see that this, this team is developed into being a very strong team.

“I was very proud of the effort and endeavour but we have to learn to start getting on the right side of those close results.

“We gave them a window to get back and they took it. But this England team played really smart rugby today.”

England looked a bit disorganised in trying to set up Ford for his drop goal and his effort never really threatened. Borthwick, however, had no complaints.

“There were a lot of experienced players, they know what we’re trying to do,” he said. “This team has been pretty successful in those drop goal situations. But the reality is that it’s a width of a post and that the nature of test rugby.”

Borthwick also chose to highlight the credentials of a New Zealand team who lost three of their six Rugby Championship games as they rebuild under new coach Scott Robertson.

“It’s a very good New Zealand team,” he said. “They had 10 players from the World Cup final, more than 1,000 caps. They had more caps in their 15 than our 23.”

Captain Jamie George, also heartily sick of having to discuss close losses, claimed that England had learned the lessons of the 16-15 and 24-17 defeats in New Zealand when they seemed to sit back to hold on to leads, but failed to do so.

“We learned lessons from the summer and from other games that have been close,” said the hooker. “I think we actually did exactly what we’ve spoken about and we felt like we were in control of it and in the exact position we wanted to be.

“We also kept attacking. That’s the thing that we made sure that we focused on, and learned a bit from, from New Zealand in the summer.

“Unfortunately, George didn’t make the kick but I tell you what, he hasn’t missed many in his career, so we certainly can’t blame it on that.”