Rugby World Cup review: England spent only a minute 13 seconds in Springboks 22 during Rugby World Cup semi-final
. In wet conditions, the decision to kick 93 per cent of their possession away was seen as an astute ploy to pressuriseAlex Mitchell’s box-kicks were by and large excellent, but it could be argued, in the second half in particular, the handling errors they forced played into South Africa’s hands given their scrum dominance. Other data points also suggest that, despite examples of good individual kicks, the gameplan did not work.
South Africa’s Siya Kolisi said post-match that his side’s discipline was poor. Yet they only conceded eight penalties. In the pool stages against England, Argentina doubled that figure. England could not convert South African handling mistakes and Freddie Steward’s dominance in the air into enough shots at goal for Owen Farrell to win the match. and have done so without conceding a single try in any of those games. Conquering.
The issue is largely one of personnel. Regular maul proponents Iain Henderson, Alan O’Connor and the now-departed Duane Vermeulen were all missing. Matty Rea, a backrow normally, started at lock. A wave of second-half replacements in the pack did at least go some way to stemming the tide at the maul, Ulster eventually scoring a set-piece try of their own.
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