England boss Borthwick concerned by a curious Fijian penalty stat
Steve Borthwick has raised concerns about the number of penalties Fiji have won in recent matches, but the England coach won’t be able to meet with this Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final referee to discuss the matter.
Following last weekend’s 18-17 English win on Lille, Samoa head coach Seilala Mapusua alleged that an unconscious refereeing bias existed whenever a tier two team plays a tier one side.
However, England boss Borthwick queried this allegation on Friday ahead of his team’s knockout clash with Fiji in Marseille.
The coach referenced the Fijians in some of their recent games – their Summer Nations Series Twickenham win over England and also their World Cup pool matches last month against Wales and Australia.
He then claimed that Fiji had won over 40 penalties in those fixtures while only conceding in the mid-20s and a search of the statistics proved him correct, the overall total coming in at 45 penalties conceded to Fiji’s 23.
In England’s August 26 game against the Pacific Islanders which was refereed by Jaco Peyper, the penalty count was 10-7 against Borthwick’s team.
Fifteen days later, versus Wales in Bordeaux on September 10 at the start of Pool C, Warren Gatland’s team came off worse on the penalty count – 17-9 – in a game that was handled by Matthew Carley while seven days later in Saint-Etienne, Eddie Jones’ Wallabies had an 18-7 penalty count against them in a match refereed by Andrew Brace.
By coincidence, Brace was the official in charge of last weekend’s close England shave against Samoa and Borthwick was asked on Friday in Aix-en-Provence if the clarification he sought after that game led to anything.
This was the query that opened the door for him to bring Fiji’s penalty record into the conversation ahead of this weekend’s last-eight clash.
“Post-game I talked about aspects of the game and would seek clarity and I did, I received clarity,” began Borthwick before switching his attention to Fiji. “In terms of Fiji, we talk about them being an incredibly strong side.
“I know some statements have been made around tier one, tier two. The situation I have is in the three games Fiji played against England, Australia, Wales in the last few weeks, they have won over 40 penalties, conceded mid-20s.
"So from that, you see a team that has a lot of penalties given to them. We have just got to control what we can control in the game and we will do that.”
Given that penalty count trend, would Borthwick be speaking to quarter-final referee Mathieu Raynal before kick-off in Marseille? No, was the answer. “It’s part of World Cup regulations you don’t speak to the referee in advance of the game,” he explained.
Owen Farrell is the England skipper tasked with on-pitch communications with the match officials. What will his approach with Raynal be? “Steve has just touched on it there, we have got to control what we can,” he said.
“If there is any sort of confusion you want to ask for clarity and want to ask what you can do better but in terms of what we can control, that is all that really matters to us.
"We talked about parts of our game now that are going to make big differences towards that. We hope we don’t have to speak to the referee.”
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> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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