England’s V set tone for great victory
The inside story of how England faced down the haka . . . and how they went on to dominate the All Blacks in every phase of play.
Many teams have tried a defiant response to the haka but few have reaped any rewards. Usually such acts of defiance only antagonise the All Blacks and are the prelude to a slaughter.
England’s response, however, was different. Not only was it intimidating in its own right, but it was backed up by a display to match.
The idea for England to arrange themselves in a V-formation, with Owen Farrell at its deepest point in the middle and Joe Marler and Billy Vunipola at the far tips of either flank, came, inevitably, from Eddie Jones.
“Eddie gave us the idea,” said Mako Vunipola. “We wanted to be respectful but we wanted to also make sure that they understood that we would be ready for the fight.”
The refusal to move
Referee Nigel Owens and assistant Pascal Gauzere ask the England players to move back beyond the halfway line. Billy Vunipola and Luke Cowan-Dickie refused, as did Marler on the other side of the V. England could be fined by World Rugby for the incursion — breaching a “cultural ritual protocol”. France were fined $4300 for a similar tactic in 2011.
Mako Vunipola said the potential breach was down to Marler.
“Joe said he got confused! He thought he was supposed to go all the way around them [in a circle] and go to their 10m line. Because of that, he’s the one who has to pay the fine.
“He dishes it out a lot so the boys would be more than happy if he has to pay it.”
The smile
Owen Farrell was key. Not only was he the central figure in England’s V, he also set the tone by smiling defiantly. “We wanted to send a bit of a message ourselves,” said George Ford. “That’s what they do when they’re doing the haka. They’re laying it down, so we thought, we’re coming back for you a bit.”
The challenge accepted
Some of the All Blacks smiled as they walked away from the haka. England knew the challenge had been accepted.
“It was just about trying to shock them,” Billy Vunipola said. “The haka is a challenge and we wanted them to know that we accepted and respected the challenge, but also that we didn’t want to just take it. We put accountability on ourselves to back it up and I thought we did. We knew it would rile them, it probably felt like we disrespected them.
“We meant no offence by it, we just wanted to let them know we were ready for the challenge ahead. They let us know in the first couple of contacts.”
The plan worked. Within 98 seconds, Manu Tuilagi had powered over for the opening try. As New Zealand wing George Bridge put it: “They came out with a hiss and a roar and gave us a punch to the nose.” Tuilagi’s try gave England control of the match, and they simply never let it go.
“We just wanted to come at them early,” said Tom Curry. “That’s the first bit of the game so it’s about trying to set a standard early. They can’t score tries off the haka. We went in there knowing we weren’t going to take a backward step. We wanted to show that from the outset.
“That’s the first moment you get in front of them so it was important to show we weren’t taking a backward step.”
Lineout domination
The lineout was supposed to be an area in which the All Blacks would come after England, having selected Scott Barrett on the blindside flank to give them four jumpers. And yet England managed to do a very New Zealand thing by attacking their opponents’ perceived area of strength.
Maro Itoje called superbly, while it seemed England were able to read the All Blacks’ throw again and again. The tone was set in the 11th minute when Itoje knocked the ball out of Scott Barrett’s hands and again, in the next minute, when England did not compete as Sam Whitelock collected the throw but then won the turnover when Itoje and Lawes wrapped up Codie Taylor.
England did concede a try when their own lineout malfunctioned once, with an overthrow allowing Ardie Savea to steal the ball and score. But by then the damage had been done. England had made the decision to use Barrett appear to be a mistake,
not a threat, and they enjoyed good possession from their own throws.
Dominating the breakdown
The knock-on effect of England’s lineout dominance was the luxury of unleashing Curry and Sam Underhill to spearhead their side’s brutal assault on the breakdown. England’s strategy had been to “take the energy” out of the All Blacks’ attacking game by winning the collisions, both through the carrying power of
Mako and Billy Vunipola, Curry, Manu Tuilagi and the jagged, elusive running of Anthony Watson.
Underhill and Curry’s breakdown work also denied the All Blacks the ability to play their attacking shapes on the front foot. “The game plan was to get round the corner and try and go at them,” Mako Vunipola said. “We managed to keep them off the breakdown. We knew the pack had to do the hard yards.”
Brother Billy said: “The biggest thing was trying to
dominate the collisions. If you get them on the back foot rather than clearing out, going forwards they have to go around and we are on the front foot.”
That breakdown pressure forced the All Blacks to concede 11 penalties to six by England.
Defence
The bedrock of the victory was again England’s defensive display. The fact that Ford and Farrell topped their side’s tackle charts, with 15 apiece, says everything about the intensity and ferocity of the side’s commitment to the cause.
“They have threats everywhere. They have strong ball-carriers, players with amazing feet and an awesome kicking game,” said Itoje. “They are a quite complete team in terms of analysing threats. You just have to be switched on for the whole thing.”
Billy Vunipola hailed Kiwi John Mitchell’s impact as defence coach. “I think Mitch has been unbelievable, not just in terms of defence, but in how he brings the team together,” he said.
“He is very concise with the points that he makes. He is always willing to learn from the players.
“When there is more trust in the players from the coaches then we want to repay that trust on the pitch.”
Selection
Jones pulled off a masterstroke in returning to the Ford-Farrell axis and the composition of his bench proved critical.
Jones revealed that he selected his replacements before considering his starting XV, because of the importance of containing the All Blacks in the final quarter.
“Their role was always going to be to win the game,” Jones said. “We wanted a setpiece focus. We thought in the last 20 minutes the set-piece would be more important, so we picked our strongest setpiece finishers.”