Why is captain replaced so early?
JEFF PROBYN
A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME
So the All Blacks keep their home record of wins at Dunedin by just one point against an England side who will be wondering what might have been. There have been a few ‘if only we had’ in the press and on social media pointing to Marcus Smith’s off day from the kicking tee however Damian McKenzie wasn’t on his best kicking form for New Zealand either, and was actually timed out for one kick and missed a few other opportunities.
In some ways it would have been better had England lost by a bigger margin making it easier for coach Steve Borthwick to identify the areas that he needs to focus on and make positive changes.
Generally it was a good day for England with one of the best individual performances by an England player coming from a ‘New Zealander’ in Chandler Cunningham-South, who came back to play for the country of his birth and gave a performance that will make the All Blacks wish they had hung on to him.
Having grown up in New Zealand from the age of four and played for North Harbour U18 and Canterbury U19, he joined the London Irish academy in February 2022 making his Premiership debut in May that year which started him on the pathway to the England team.
Unfortunately for England the early injury to Joe Marler last Saturday, which saw him leave the field, impacted on the team’s game plan with England failing to have the stable set piece at the scrum that they were seeking. However Fin Baxter, below, faced a baptism of fire for his first senior cap and did quite well considering it was against an established All Blacks pack. He will have learned a lot about the difference between club and international rugby and will have been given guidance in making improvements for the game this week.
That said, I still can’t understand why Borthwick automatically takes off his captain half way through a game. Why would he bring on Theo Dan in the 54th minute, just 14 minutes after half time, into what was a very disrupted front row and expected him to cope with that pressure.
Even forgetting the role of captain that Jamie George occupies, which is basically to reassure and keep the team focused while following the coaches’ instructions delivered during the half-time break. It is a bit strange to take off a 33-year-old experienced hooker with 85 caps under his belt and replace him with a young, relatively inexperienced 23-year-old with 14 caps, who I don’t think has ever actually started a game yet. When you’ve lost a key front row player like Marler you need stability and experienced players to be able to compete, so it seems daft to have brought George off particularly as it must have been discussed at half-time. Even in the modern game where substitutes are so numerous that they can be brought on for little or no reason other than a coach wishing to exploit fatigue shown (if there is any) by those who started the game. Even so, the captain was usually always exempt and would have stayed on until the end of the game. That includes recent captains such as Owen Farrell, who may have moved position during the game but usually stayed on the pitch until the final whistle.
As a former second row, Borthwick must have known the pressure the front row would be under having the inexperienced Baxter on for his first cap in place of Marler and how the whole pack and team would be affected, and therefore how that could only have worsened with his reassuring captain leaving the pitch.
It may have also contributed to the referee giving those crucial penalties that won the game for New Zealand rather similar to the last Rugby World Cup semi-final against South Africa, only this time it was England’s substitutions that cost them the game
Still, hopefully Borthwick and his team on and off the pitch will have learned the lessons for the future, and the game at the iconic home of New Zealand rugby Eden Park. As much as playing at Eden Park may be difficult for the opposition, we can only imagine the pressure that each win places on the next All Blacks team to play there. After all who wants to be famous for having lost the 30-year winning streak and be remembered for breaking a run of 48 wins and two draws.
The All Blacks have only just started their international season and had not played any games under new coach Scott Robertson until facing an England side finishing their season that has played 23 games under coach Steve Borthwick (winning 13). This means no matter where the game was played, New Zealand were the underdogs for that first Test.
Last week’s game gave the England and New Zealand players and coaches first hand experience of how each other are now playing and approaching the games under their respective coaches and possibly what to expect in the future making yesterday’s game definitely worth getting up early for no matter what the result.
