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Maro Itoje sends message to England fans after heartbreaking loss
By PA
Maro Itoje has assured England fans that the team are closing in on the statement win needed to justify claims that progress is being made under Steve Borthwick.
England endured a dramatic 24-22 defeat by New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, placing them on the back foot for the remaining autumn Tests against Australia, South Africa and Japan.
Outside of a glorious victory over Ireland in March, they have developed the habit of building winning positions against top opposition only to throw the game away in the closing stages.
Demonstrating this trend is that their three consecutive defeats by the All Blacks under Borthwick have been by a combined total of 10 points – and on each occasion they led in the final quarter.
“We will get there. We have to lick our wounds and take our medicine at the moment, but this team is building in a positive direction,” Saracens lock Itoje said.
“I have been part of a few teams and you get a sense of when a team is moving in the right direction.
“I think we are growing in the right areas of the game, we are aggressive in attack and there is a general feel of confidence and vibe amongst the players.
“We have had some agonising losses, but this is a different team to what it was 18 months ago with the way we play, the endeavour we show.
“Sometimes in the past when we lost, they were clear losses and we were clutching at straws. I don’t feel we are clutching at straws now. We lost but we’re close.
“It did not feel like we were playing a team that was by far better than us and we were surviving.
“We actually felt we deserved to win the game but ultimately we didn’t and that’s the most important thing.
“But I do feel like we are genuinely moving in the right direction. Unfortunately we will have to take our medicine now, but I think we will get it.”
Sale’s England Under-20 prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour has been called up as loosehead cover following the retirement of Joe Marler. The uncapped Opoku-Fordjour will provide cover for Ellis Genge and Fin Baxter.
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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