In hindsight….
The Boks were poor. Maybe our performance surprised them, maybe they were looking ahead to next week, maybe we didn't let them play well, but they were poor. This was a big chance and after 50 minutes I was feeling pretty relaxed. But Borthwick feels like one of rugby's nearly men so there was always a suspicion that something might go wrong.
Yes, we smashed into them, pride, passion etc. Big question about where the hell that's been for the last 3 years. But this was a World Cup semi final, if you can't be bothered to get out of bed for that, when will you? Absolute minimum requirement, but met.
Conditions meant it was always going to be a simple game plan. Borthwick deserves credit for the Cole, Marler and Martin selections and Steward put to bed most of the nonsense around him. May and Daly chased and competed well. Itoje and Faz reminded us of what they can do. Back row competed hard, Mitchell came out in credit. Didn't really notice Manu much, Marchant was competitive. Disappointed in George who I thought had a fairly average tournament overall.
Where Borthwick got it wrong….
Binny. His instincts of months ago were right. Shouldn't have been anywhere near the squad and certainly shouldn't have been involved last night. We needed intensity - Ludlam or Underhill would've brought that.
Props. Sinckler and Genge (should've stayed at Tigers) are poor imitations of what they were / could be. Not good enough and it cost us. In the rebuild he should put maximum emphasis on scrummaging and nothing else. Rodd and Stuart weren't used and were wastes of places. If VRR and Schonert / Collier are our best scrummagers they should have been on the plane to give options.
Selection of, and then lack of trust in, Dan and Walker. His lack of experience and modest stature meant that Dan was actually a bit of a reckless gamble. I think Borthwick maybe eventually realised that. McGuigan should have been on the plane to take some of the pressure off George.
Let's get the pack sorted before we start worrying about the backs. But age / France will mean that unit starts looking different fairly quickly.
As a wrap up, I remain largely unconvinced by Borthwick and his coaching team. But, if there were doubts, last night will have secured his future. At the end of the day we beat a load of lower ranked teams and lost to a higher ranked one we'd put ourselves in a position to beat. Not disastrous, far from stunning. Kind of par.
There's a big rebuild coming. Let's see how Borthwick handles that. His excuses window is now closed.
