{"id":252615,"date":"2025-11-09T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T06:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252615\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T06:56:13","slug":"sir-clive-woodward-the-key-lesson-fiji-taught-england-ahead-of-their-tough-all-blacks-test-and-why-steve-borthwick-should-switch-up-his-backline-after-a-missed-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252615\/","title":{"rendered":"SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: The key lesson Fiji taught England ahead of their tough All Blacks test – and why Steve Borthwick should switch up his backline after a missed opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

England have now won nine consecutive Tests so my glass is undoubtedly half full at the very least when it comes to analysing Steve Borthwick<\/a>\u2019s side.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now comes their acid test against New Zealand. The All Blacks<\/a> will really show us where this team is at. As we saw in their win over Scotland, Scott Robertson\u2019s side are totally ruthless.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They take almost every chance given to them. They simply never go away. It is a statement of the obvious to say they will be England\u2019s toughest challenge of the autumn, but I am positive Borthwick and his players can claim a big scalp even if they will have to improve again on the back of their wins over Australia and Fiji this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Firstly, a big ‘well done’ to Fiji. They were immense and are clearly a coming force internationally. They\u2019ve always been dangerous. But now they really are a team capable of beating the best in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Twickenham, we saw that clearly. I thought the nature of the final scoreline flattered England.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Had Simione Kuruvoli not spilled the ball under pressure from Ben Earl and Marcus Smith when in the act of scoring, the result could have been very different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"England <\/p>\n

England overcame Fiji at Twickenham but it could have been a very different story<\/p>\n

\"Simione <\/p>\n

Simione Kuruvoli (right) spilling the ball with the line at his mercy was a key moment\u00a0<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, this was a game Fiji could have won.<\/p>\n

It is fantastic to see their growth as a team, even if their brilliant attacking play and physicality caused England supporters \u2013 including me \u2013 some serious anxiety!<\/p>\n

Ultimately, England did well to rally and eventually pull clear. As they did against Australia on the opening weekend of November, the bench came on and had a big impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late tries from Henry Arundell and Maro Itoje put a gloss on the final outcome, but I still think England can go into the New Zealand game with confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I wrote ahead of the game, I do wish Borthwick as coach had kept faith with the side that started against Australia. Although England won again, I\u2019m not sure how much they learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought Fin Smith, for example, was quiet at No 10 and I\u2019d expect\u00a0George Ford<\/a>\u00a0to come back into the side at fly-half for the All Blacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

England scored six tries and there can be no doubt they benefited from two Fiji yellow cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it might seem somewhat negative to focus on the areas England can improve on when they are on a good winning streak, it is vital they do so because it will take a performance close to perfection to beat New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tommy <\/p>\n

Tommy Freeman was moved to the wing having played at outside centre last week<\/p>\n

Look at the way Scotland played against them. At one stage, an upset looked on in\u00a0Edinburgh<\/a>. But Gregor Townsend<\/a>\u2019s side didn\u2019t take all of their chances and ultimately, paid the price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

England can\u2019t expect to win on Saturday if they do likewise. And in many ways, Fiji taught England a lesson in how to take opportunities when they come.\u00a0They converted well, scoring some wonderful tries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have been consistent in my view that I\u2019m not totally convinced by England\u2019s centre pairing. Fraser Dingwall and Ollie Lawrence started there against Fiji with Tommy Freeman on the wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For New Zealand, I\u2019d bring back Freeman at No 13. But he should never have been moved from there in the first place and that\u2019s why I make the point that perhaps this game was a bit of a missed opportunity, with the All Blacks in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"England <\/p>\n

England can celebrate their win but know they need to be close to perfection next week<\/p>\n

Freddie Steward, who missed this game, will hopefully be fit to return at full-back too. To become a potential World Cup-winning team, England have to nail down their first-choice XV and stick with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As good as the replacements have been in the last two games, I\u2019m not convinced by all this focus on the bench and international rugby being a 23-man game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, England can beat New Zealand. As much as midfield remains a conundrum for England to solve, the All Blacks aren\u2019t at 100 per cent in that area either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While they undoubtedly have wonderful players, the loss of Jordie Barrett is highly significant because he is truly world class for Robertson\u2019s men in midfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have now won nine consecutive Tests so my glass is undoubtedly half full at the very least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[428,97,309,10363,620,5903,23783,217,101,5831,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-252615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-australia","tag-dailymail","tag-england","tag-fiji","tag-new-zealand","tag-rugby","tag-rugbyunion","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-steve-borthwick","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}