SAM TIMES IT’S NOT YOUR DAY
EDDIE JONES spoke of his devastation after Lady Luck turned her back on England.
A week after escaping to victory with a hugely controversial call against South Africa, the good fortune ran out against the world champions.
“Sometimes the game loves you and some times it doesn’t,” cursed Jones (inset) after Sam Underhill’s late ‘winning’ try was chalked off for a marginal offside.
“It loved us last week, it didn’t love us so much this week.
“We’re obviously devastated but we take the good with the bad. We’ll get some love from the game further down the track.”
The contrast in emotion among a sellout 82,149 Twickenham crowd could not have been greater from last week. Against the Springboks an explosion of joy greeted the referee’s decision to allow Owen Farrell’s patently ‘no-arms’ hit – rather than give the Boks a deserved shot at glory.
This time there was a cacophony of boos as South African TMO Marius Jonker ruled Courtney Lawes strayed offside as he charged down the kick which led to Underhill’s score.
“There was no doubt he was offside,” scoffed All Blacks boss Steve Hansen. “He was just about in the half-back’s back pocket.
“What was going through my mind was, ‘Will they be brave enough to make the decision?”.
It was especially cruel on Underhill – superb throughout – who turned world player of the year Beauden Barrett inside out with a feint and step on his way to the line.
England, 14-point no-hopers in the eyes of the bookies, had stunned the All Blacks by racing into a 15-0 lead. Chris Ashton, in his first start for four years, opened the scoring after just 106 seconds and Dylan Hartley doubled the lead shortly before the half-hour, driven over by his pack and half the three-quarter line after Maro Itoje won clean lineout ball.
But big decisions win matches and New Zealand got theirs on the stroke of half-time when captain Kieran Read turned down a shot at goal for a scrum and was rewarded with a Damian Mckenzie try.
England paid for taking captain Hartley off at the interval as their lineout fell apart under Jamie George. And following Underhill’s unlucky break, they failed to engineer a drop-goal opportunity.
Jones refused to point the finger, saying: “We endorse every decision the players make.” But he will know his team blew a golden chance to lay down a marker ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“Test match rugby is about those small opportunities,” he sighed. ENGLAND: TRIES: CONS: DROP GOAL: NEW ZEALAND: TRIES: CONS: PENS: DROP GOAL:
England 15 New Zealand 16