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21 hours ago
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Not quite the complete works of Shakespeare, but eventually the monkeys and their typewriters were going to script a last-gasp England victory. Leaving a frazzled Twickenham on Saturday night you could not help but wonder how much significance the history books will end up affording this thrilling contest.
Has a corner been turned, has “the dam broken” as Ben Earl had promised it would, or was this, as captivating as it was, simply evidence that a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day? That while there are no certainties in professional sport, if England kept putting themselves in contention in the final throes of matches, that if they came up against a side with what at times looked like a nihilistic contempt for the try-line, eventually, after all those near misses, they would end up on the right side of the scoreboard. Is this a new dawn or simply the law of averages at play?
For all that Steve Borthwick talked about “processes” after the 26-25 triumph against France, about hard work, staying on task and incremental improvements, he said far more at the final whistle without uttering a word. He was caught on camera, hand to his mouth, eyes shut, relief seeping out of every pore. It was the briefest of moments, jolted out of it by a congratulatory slap on the back, but a demonstration of just how much pressure he was under after a run of seven defeats in nine Tests, six of them by a score or less.
There is much that England got right in the final quarter on Saturday, whether it be the impact of the bench and in particular that of Jamie George, Fin Smith’s assuredness at fly-half, Earl’s key turnover or Tom Curry’s staggering work rate, but perhaps Borthwick’s greatest success was to keep that pressure away from his players. “I asked the team to really aim to score tries,” he said. “I know that’s an easy thing to say. I know that might sound so obvious. But that means being aggressive with the ball, being brave with the ball and I saw us being that.”
Players talked of keeping on the front foot while Elliot Daly, whose try ultimately sealed victory, did his best to spell it out for the layman. “I think, whatever happened it was like – pardon my French – fuck that, on to the next thing,” he said. “It allowed us to be free and brave with the ball.”
If this match is to go down in the annals of history as the day the tide turned for Borthwick’s England, you suspect all accompanying images will feature Curry. Indeed, there can’t be many of Saturday’s game in which he does not appear, so ubiquitous was the Sale flanker. It was not so long ago that he was told he may have to retire because of a debilitating hip injury. He could not train last Monday after hobbling on to the final whistle against Ireland but on Saturday he won two pivotal turnovers and, according to Borthwick, is reaching new heights.
“The really best players, the players who think about the game, think about how the game changes and how they change, they get better through their career,” he said. “And that’s exactly what I’m seeing with Tom Curry. I see a player who is better now than what he was a while ago.”
Credit, too, goes to George who was making his first appearance since being stripped of the captaincy. Along with Ollie Chessum he turned England’s lineout into a valuable weapon, made a conspicuous line-break and settled straight into the role of Maro Itoje’s lieutenant. It is no coincidence that whereas he was replaced around the hour in so many of England’s narrow defeats, he was fresh for the final 18 minutes on Saturday.
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Then there is the changing of the guard at fly-half and Fin Smith, who recovered from a shaky start in which he was charged down to demonstrate the composure that Borthwick had promised beforehand. It was his kick to his Northampton teammate Tommy Freeman for England’s second try and he who called the match-winning move before putting Daly through the gap he had himself prised open. It was a gamble by Borthwick to pick him and to move Marcus Smith to full-back but that Fin Smith linked so well with his clubmates in the backline only adds to the sense that he is poised for an extended run at No 10.
“Connections are the most important thing in a team,” Freeman said. “There are cues that I can pick up that probably a lot of lads can’t. I knew [Fin] was going to hit that crossfield kick, I know the way he moves, the timing he wants off you whereas with Marcus, it’s a bit different. It was nice to have to have him there.”
Nothing signposts a new dawn of English rugby quite like the emergence of a new fly-half so Fin Smith’s performance makes it all the more tempting to hype this as a watershed moment. The reality is that it could just as easily be a one-off, a fleeting moment in time when the stars aligned for this England side. Give Borthwick his dues, though. The way he has this team playing, it’ll be fun finding out whichever path they take.
