Fantastic Ford steers battling England past All Blacks in Twickenham thriller
A perfect 10 wins in a row is a reliable indicator of a team on the rise.What England really craved, though, was a statement victory to underline just how far they have come in the past 18 months or so.And on a dull grey November afternoon they finally secured it, beating a disappointed New Zealand for the first time in south-west London for 13 long years.They deserved it, too, storming back from 12-0 down to claim the kind of result that rewards all the painstaking hard work of both the players and the management.There were four English tries in all, including two in the final half hour from Fraser Dingwall and Tom Roebuck, as Steve Borthwick’s team become only the ninth England side to cut the All Blacks down to size.
The big result also owed a lot to one of the smaller men on the field.Borthwick predicted this week that George Ford would one day assume the England head coach mantle and the fly-half’s stock as a playmaker has rarely been higher.Two inch-perfect drop-goals in the first-half changed the momentum of the whole contest and, after the interval, his generalship helped to keep his teammates one step ahead of their pursuers.It all made for a stirring brew.In the car park beforehand even battle-hardened former red rose legends were sniffing the air and pronouncing they just had a feeling about England.
This time their instincts were correct as the hosts won the second half by the convincing margin of 22-7,This New Zealand side do not have the pedigree of some of their predecessors but they have still been good enough to see off Ireland and Scotland this month,And famous wins do not get routinely handed over on rarified occasions like this one,The sense of expectation was scarcely diluted by the sight of England forming a deliberate semi-circle in response to the pre-game haka, echoing the V-shaped formation that preceded their famous 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final win in Yokohama,Initially, though, it merely seemed to galvanise the All Blacks further.
It was the visitors who struck twice within the first quarter, scoring two tries inside five minutes to puncture any semblance of English conceit,First the winger Leicester Fainga’anuku burrowed over on the left before a beautiful long pass from Beauden Barrett sent Will Jordan skimming away down the middle and launched a sustained attack which resulted in hooker Codie Taylor going over,A sizeable early deficit was not part of England’s masterplan so it was a significant relief when a missed tackle by Leroy Carter allowed Ollie Lawrence to surge on and score at the other end,On the debit side the home side were soon forced into a change at full-back, with Freddie Steward leaving the field for a head injury assessment never to return,England: Steward (M Smith, 21); Roebuck, Lawrence (Cunningham-South, 78), Dingwall, Feyi-Waboso; Ford, Mitchell (Spencer, 72); Baxter (Genge, 55), George (Cowan-Dickie, 43), Heyes (Stuart, 55), Itoje (capt), Coles, Pepper (Pollock, 55), Underhill (T Curry, 55), Earl.
Tries: Lawrence, Underhill, Dingwall, Roebuck,Cons: Ford 2,Pen: Ford,Drop goals: Ford 2,Sin-bin: Earl 63.
New Zealand: Jordan; Carter, Proctor, Tupaea (Lienert-Brown, 55), Fainga'anuku; B Barrett (McKenzie, 54), Roigard (Ratima, 44); De Groot, Taylor (Taukei'aho, 66), Newell (Tosi, 55), S Barrett (capt), Lord (Darry, 66), Parker (Taukei'aho, 48-54; Sititi, 54), Savea, Lakai.Tries: Fainga'anuku, Taylor, Jordan.Cons: B Barrett, McKenzie.Sin-bin: Taylor 41Referee: Andrea Piardi (It).Att: 81,953.
Marcus Smith’s arrival, though, coincided with England shaking off their torpor.New Zealand’s basics began to wobble, with Beauden Barrett guilty of kicking the ball dead from a penalty at a crucial juncture and Cam Roigard making a hash of another similar opportunity.Their inaccuracy was in striking contrast to Ford’s marksmanship, his two sweetly-struck drop goals reducing the half-time margin to a single point.England would have taken that before kick-off, particularly given the All Blacks did not concede a single penalty in the first 40 minutes, depriving England of the platform from which to build sustained pressure.Nor did it help that three English line-outs went astray in the first half, the kind of detail that often gets lost but makes a massive difference to a team’s fluency.
Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionSuddenly, in terms of place of the prevailing fan mood, a stadium of flat whites was replaced by several long black expressions, not helped when Taylor was shown a yellow card for knocking the ball out of Smith’s hands on the floor,Within three minutes of the restart England took advantage to register their second try, the influential Sam Underhill crashing through Barrett to score,With New Zealand still a man down there was almost a third try, the Italian referee Andrea Piardi eventually calling play right back for offside at a lineout after Ford had sprinted away following a dislodged ball in midfield,Rugby’s ability to find hairline calls to argue over for days has seldom been greater,There was absolutely no disputing the slickness of Dingwall’s game-breaking score, however.
The All Blacks seemed to momentarily switch off as England took advantage of quick lineout ball to send Lawrence steaming down the 12 channel.With New Zealand expecting him to keep on going, the Bath centre cleverly took out two defenders with a lovely pop pass that sent his midfield mate over unopposed for the sweetest of tries.Now there was some daylight and, with the scrums increasingly one-sided, it was no surprise when England scored their fourth, Henry Pollock kicking ahead and Roebuck doing the rest.The Twickenham atmosphere continues to veer wildly in tone between traditional military band reserve and ear-splitting techno – this time we had a gospel choir singing Jerusalem immediately followed by a blast of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes – but when England are on the up it is a serious amphitheatre.The roar of pent-up joy at the final whistle said it all.
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People in the UK: have you received good or bad financial advice from an AI chatbot?
Tech companies are pumping billions into the growth of artificial intelligence, with OpenAI this month signing a $38bn (£29bn) cloud computing deal with Amazon as part of a $3tn datacentre spending spree.But as people increasingly use AI chatbots – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity – for advice and task completion, some observers have concerns about misinformation, hullicinations and irresponsible advice.A survey this year from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that 80 percent of people in the UK believe AI regulation is required.We want to hear from people who have asked chatbots for financial advice. Have you asked AI tools for help with money, debt or personal finance? Were you recommended anything unexpected, or unsuitable? What was the financial result? Do you have concerns?You can tell us about askng AI tools for financial advice herePlease include as much detail as possible
Ireland v Australia: Autumn Nations Series rugby union – live
Officials for the matchReferee: Karl Dickson (RFU)Assistants: Pierre Brousset (FFR), Adam Leal (RFU)TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)What’s the worst clothing decision you’ve made? You can let me know on the email and I promise I won’t judge. You may also wish to offer thoughts on the rugby, but I’ll leave it up to you.Ireland Mack Hansen; Tommy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Paddy McCarthy, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Ryan Baird, Caelan Doris, Jack Conan.Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Porter, Thomas Clarkson, Nick Timoney, Cian Prendergast, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Bundee Aki.Australia Max Jorgensen; Filipo Daugunu, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter; James O’Connor, Jake Gordon; Angus Bell, Matt Faessler, Allan Alaalatoa; Jeremy Williams, Tom Hoope; Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson
New Zealand have lost the power to strike fear in opponents’ hearts | Michael Aylwin
Do we still care about grand slam tours? If so, the headlines might read that New Zealand’s first attempt at one in 15 years has fallen at the third attempt out of four. But as the All Blacks hung their heads at the end and the English went wild with celebration all around, it is reasonable to think the grand slam was the last thought on their minds.More pressing will be the 25 unanswered points they conceded in the middle of the match, which will echo to the 17 they conceded last Saturday at Murrayfield. On that occasion they summoned the composure to prevail. This time, they were up against a stroppy England team who are increasingly enjoying the directive to be in an opponent’s face from start to finish
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