Matt Dawson column: ‘England had the game in their hands against New Zealand’

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Matt Dawson column: ‘England had the game in their hands against New Zealand’

Hindsight is very handy, but I was surprised with the timing of some of the changes England made, as I didn’t feel they were necessary.

They replaced the entire front row early in the second half when they were still handling themselves well.

New Zealand were behind in the scrum in the first half and you knew they were definitely going to do something about it.

The first scrum after the break, the All ******* just had a little edge and immediately England made changes in the front row.

You probably thought they would go to another scrum and see if England could handle it, but it was immediate.

I wholeheartedly disagree, however, with the timing of the decision to replace half-backs Ben Spencer and Marcus Smith with Harry Randall and George Ford.

Spencer and Smith had managed the game really well. There were threats everywhere and they were playing a great style of rugby.

They didn’t have a lot of possession but when they did, Marcus created problems.

The game was nowhere near won. England were leading by eight points but you knew New Zealand were still going to have a say.

I just think it took the momentum out the game and the way England were organising their defence.

Nonetheless, there is not one part of me that will lay any blame with Ford for the missed drop-goal attempt in the final play.

It was an utter shambles of a drill.

From the moment that scrum went down under the posts, it seemed every single player looked at Ford for the drop-goal. Randall picked up from the middle of the scrum, when it should have been Alex Dombrandt’s ball at number eight.

Then he shipped it on and they go through the phases a bit. Everyone is looking at Ford but no-one is doing their job of trucking it up and getting into a good position.

Go back to England v Ireland in the Six Nations when it all came down to Marcus Smith’s drop-goal.

England had two penalty advantages right in front of the sticks. If Smith had topped that, they had a penalty because of the amazing work the forwards had done to create that situation.

Jonny Wilkinson was great at drop-goals but he had an England forward pack in front of him to control the narrative around the breakdown.

You could see Ford was looking at Randall and not wanting the ball because he was on the back foot and static. When he did get it, it was above his head with several All ******* running at him.

It was a one-in-a-100 shot.

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