Rugby union is a sport of trends and of unintended consequences and what I expect to be the two most decisive factors in England\u2019s clash with the All Blacks on Saturday are inextricably linked. Much has been made of England\u2019s firepower on their bench \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s isn\u2019t bad either \u2013 and when coaches are able to call upon such quality replacements, often en masse, then the kicking battle becomes all the more important.<\/p>\n
That’s because the international game is not currently as fluid as it has been which isn\u2019t necessarily a criticism, it\u2019s just the way things are at present; a little bit like the Premier League where set pieces and long throws are dominating. Of course we would all love to see flowing, attacking rugby but it\u2019s really difficult. Because all elite sides favour having 13 or 14 men in the line, they all seem to adopt a blitz defence and the sheer level of physicality means it can be hard to have possession. It means that having a good set piece and a good kicking game are paramount and the emerging trend for \u201cbomb squads\u201d accentuates that because less fatigue is taking hold across 80 minutes. That isn\u2019t to say there aren\u2019t some magical moments when teams are on transition \u2013 Henry Arundell\u2019s try against Fiji<\/a> is a great example \u2013 but it is clear to me that things are a little old school at the moment.<\/p>\n It is not a new phenomenon that international rugby matches are decided in the final 20 minutes but Steve Borthwick deserves credit for taking what was a real weakness of England\u2019s 12 months ago and making it one of their strengths. In last year\u2019s autumn campaign the bench just wasn\u2019t up to standard \u2013 Borthwick did not have the level of quality individuals needed \u2013 but that is no longer an accusation that can be levelled at him. Six British & Irish Lions including Tom Curry, who I believe is the best openside flanker in the world, demonstrate that England\u2019s bench is a potent weapon.<\/p>\n It is, of course, a risk to stack your bench, all the more so when playing a side such as the All Blacks, who have a history of starting fast and blowing teams away. Borthwick will be mindful of that but this is not a vintage New Zealand side. Granted, they raced into a 17-0 lead against Scotland but in years gone by the All Blacks would have racked up 40-odd points and put Scotland well out of sight. As it was they had to win the match twice<\/a> at Murrayfield.<\/p>\n The key for Borthwick is not just having this arsenal on the bench, it is deploying it in the right way. Evidently, just as the Springboks have done, Borthwick likes to make wholesale changes to his forward pack around 50-60 minutes. We can expect that again on Saturday but crucial will be the head coach\u2019s ability to adapt on the hoof if he needs to. If New Zealand have raced in to an early lead he cannot afford to stand on ceremony. The Springboks are the world leaders in that regard. Against France last weekend, Rassie Erasmus changed one of his props after half an hour, replaced Siya Kolisi at half-time on his 100th cap following Lood de Jager\u2019s red card, made the surprise move to bring on Manie Libbok at fly-half and push Sasha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to full-back and deployed Andr\u00e9 Esterhuizen as a flanker\/centre. They were inspired, proactive moves by Erasmus and he and his coaches are streets ahead of the rest of the world in that regard. Borthwick has to be prepared to be similarly brave on Saturday.<\/p>\n Tom Curry will be a formidable asset on England\u2019s bench. Photograph: Andrew Boyers\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n If things pan out as Borthwick seems to expect, the scoreline will be close heading into the final quarter. Heavy rain is forecast so it could well be a cagey affair and there is no doubt that both sides will look to kick regularly. New Zealand\u2019s No 1 priority when doing so will be to keep the ball away from Freddie Steward and in order to do that they will look to kick off 10 and 15 rather than 9. Two clean, quick passes gives the full-back a far better opportunity to find space than when kicking through the scrum-half.<\/p>\n England, for their part, will look to Alex Mitchell and George Ford to exert the kind of control they exerted over Australia<\/a> and as a result the latter\u2019s recall at fly-half<\/a> is no surprise. Steward is in for a busy afternoon and Tom Roebuck\u2019s return to fitness from an ankle injury is a huge boost for Borthwick because they are two of the best aerial operators around. Again, that may not be what spectators who value fast, free-flowing rugby want to see all the time but I\u2019m reluctant to view England\u2019s kicking in a negative light. The criticism was understandable at the World Cup when they were wasting overlaps to put boot to ball but now they are maximising their assets.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Do the Springboks come in for unfair criticism for their reliance on their scrummaging ability? There are three reasons why you kick \u2013 to get territory, to get the ball back and to score. In their two matches to date England have shown how effective they can be in all three facets and on Saturday, against the side ranked second in the world, it stands to reason that they will attempt to do so again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby union is a sport of trends and of unintended consequences and what I expect to be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-285623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}