England End With Rugby Win But Overall Results Poor

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Allianz Stadium inside
Allianz Stadium (Wikipedia.org, Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The men’s England rugby union team have ended their Autumn Internationals with a resounding victory against Japan. They won their last game 59-14, with the visitors, coached by former England boss, Eddie Jones, having gone down by a similar score (52-17) the last time these two met. That previous clash was on Japanese soil, in June of this year, and was actually England’s last victory too.

In between the two wins over Japan, England had lost five games in a row, with the most recent three of those all having come at the Allianz Stadium (AKA Twickenham!). Admittedly all the games were against the top sides from the southern hemisphere, with two away against New Zealand, plus three in the Autumn International against the Kiwis again, plus Australia and world champions South Africa. However, even so, five defeats in a row was a tough run for England to endure.

Borthwick’s Men Finally Get the Win


Starting at the positive end of things, the crowd in Twickenham (the place, not the stadium, which as we all know and love is called the Allianz Stadium now!) finally got something to cheer when Steve Borthwick’s side cantered to a comprehensive victory over Japan. The win was by a margin of some 45 points, though on the face of it that is no more impressive than the 35-point victory they recorded over the same opposition in the summer, away from home.

However, it was certainly a much-needed tonic after a poor sequence of results. England came out firing in the first half (as they really needed to do) and were 35-7 to the good at the break. Jamie George scored two tries in the first period, with further tries from Ben Earl, Sam Underhill and Ollie Sleightholme. Naoto Saito also got one for the Japanese in the opening 40 after a fine attack from the away side.

At the interval, Borthwick and the home fans might have hoped for a bigger win than they eventually managed. However, Japan stuck to their task diligently, as one would expect from a proud nation and also from a team coached by the nuggety Jones. Kazuki Himeno got the Brave Blossoms’ second try of the afternoon shortly after the hour mark but the game was already in the bag for the hosts thanks to second-half tries from George Furbank and Luke Cowan-Dickie, even if they were scored somewhat against the run of play.

England went on to add two further tries, making it nine in total, with another for Cowan-Dickie and a first senior England try for Tom Roebuck. In the end, it was the sort of easy win most expected but given how the home team had developed a habit of failing to cash in on good positions, Borthwick would have been very happy with the way his troops stopped the rot.

England Waste Fine Chances to Lose First Three

Rugby Autumn Internationals
Flickr.com, Marc, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As noted, England had lost five in a row heading into the Japan clash but all five had been close and they certainly could have won all five on a different day. Touring NZ back in the summer they went down 16-15 in Dunedin and then 24-17 in Auckland. At Twick… the Allianz Stadium they were certainly given a fighting chance of beating the Kiwis but it wasn’t to be.

Their opening fixture in this autumn’s series came on the 2nd of November as England went down 22-24 to the All Blacks. It was an agonising defeat that really set the tone for the two big games that followed, as the hosts really could – and even should – have won.

The build-up to the game had centred on Joe Marler’s ill-judged comments about the Kiwi haka, which did his teammates no favours whatsoever. Of course, a team that takes their rugby and sporting identity as seriously as New Zealand needs no firing up. Even so, Marler’s claim that the haka was “ridiculous” and “needs binning” was sure to put that tiny bit of extra fire in the bellies of the proud All Blacks.

In the end, and rather surprisingly, for much of the game the hosts acquitted themselves superbly. They only managed one try, with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso touching down after an interception from Marcus Smith. That came after 44 minutes, following four first-half penalties from Smith that kept England in the game against an undisciplined NZ, albeit one that had the better of the first half.

Smith added the conversion and then his fifth penalty on the hour mark. That meant England were 22-14 up with just 20 minutes to play. Of course, the All Blacks are never out of the game and they hit back. First came a penalty, then a try from Mark Tele’a with just four minutes to go, which was duly converted to give the tourists a two-point lead.

It looked like England would retake the lead though, when George Ford had an eminently makeable penalty shortly after. His effort hit the post but amazingly the same player had an even later chance to win the game after NZ knocked on with 90 seconds to play. From the close-range scrum the ball was perfectly fed back to Ford but somehow, he put his drop-kick wide. He was clearly gutted at the whistle and England’s poor run against the Kiwis continued.

More of the Same Against Australia and South Africa

There were certainly positives to take from the defeat, not least because it should have been a win! A week later Australia came to the Allianz and of the three big games England had, this would have been the one where they most fancied their chances. However, Australia won by five points, 42-37, despite England having been 12 points in front at one stage and then also having the lead with just two minutes to go. Like the NZ game it was a bit of a classic, with Australia turning the 12-point deficit into a 10-point lead before England hit back.

Once again England were on the wrong side of late drama, as Australian, Max Jorgensen, scored a winning try with the last action of the game, four minutes after the 80. Against a team they had beaten 10 times in the last 11, it was a bitter pill to swallow. England had been favourites to beat the Aussies but that wasn’t the case against South Africa. The world champs had beaten them in the semis of the World Cup in 2023, winning 16-15 thanks to a late, late penalty. Not managing to be ruthless in the closes has become a terrible habit for England but in truth, SA were the better side in this one.

The first half, in fact the first 26 minutes, saw five tries, and the visitors led 19-17 at half-time, despite Sleightholme giving the hosts an early lead. England briefly led again, 20-19, but in the final half hour of the match, SA asserted their superiority and closed out the match with relative ease.

Three Defeats & One Win


Overall, three defeats and just one win, against weak opponents. Those who see the cup as half empty will focus on the results and England’s failures to deliver when it matters most. However, there is certainly plenty of cause for optimism for those of that bent, given Borthwick’s men could so easily have won at least three of their four Autumn Internationals.

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