SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: England’s time is now – no excuses

• Rhetoric about long-term development sets the wrong tone in my opinion
• England’s time is now and they must not throw games away in the last half-hour 
• The defeat by New Zealand will hurt but there were plenty of positives to take 

England’s Auckland defeat will hurt them even more than their first Test loss in Dunedin.

There are lots of positives to take from this tour of New Zealand.

But, I’m afraid it’s a bit of a copy and paste job from last weekend. The reality is England should have won both matches against an All Blacks team that was there for the taking.

Before the game at Eden Park, I wrote that England must learn from the first Test where they played not to lose rather than win the match in the last half hour.

I was interested to hear Steve Borthwick reference exactly that in his pre-match interview on Sky.

Unfortunately, exactly the same thing happened again.

For the second weekend running, England were outstanding for 50 minutes and just too passive in thought and deed for the final half hour.

This is something the team really must learn from and correct. I really didn’t understand why Marcus Smith was substituted. I thought he was having an outstanding game at No 10.

Smith was controlling the match. He created two brilliant tries for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Tommy Freeman with excellent kicks and I thought his game management was good.

I’ve got nothing against Fin Smith who is a very good player, but he couldn’t impact proceedings in his time on the field and a change just was not required, especially in such a pivotal position.

It might explain why England dropped away so noticeably.

A lot of the narrative pre and post-match was that this is a young England side which will learn from these experiences and be better for it in the future.

I really do not agree or like this kind of rhetoric as for me it sets totally the wrong tone for the team. Playing for England is about today. The mindset the players should have is that this might be my last game for England and certainly not part of any kind of development process!

England might have young players. But the team which has taken on the All Blacks in the last fortnight is the best the country can put on the field currently. That means their time is now, not in months and seasons to come. Yes, England will and really should improve moving forwards.

But so will every other team. New Zealand certainly will because I don’t think they’ve been anywhere near what they’re capable of in this series.

Their lineout was nothing short of shambolic in Auckland which won’t happen again.

Beauden Barrett changed the game for the All Blacks. His impact from the bench was huge and the same can be said for New Zealand’s replacement tighthead prop Fletcher Newell.

Scott Robertson’s substitutions influenced the game. Borthwick’s changes, unfortunately, did not and were just not required.

If I was in Robertson’s shoes as New Zealand coach, Barrett would be my fly-half. His running threat is huge and he showed that at full-back when he came on for Stephen Perofeta.

I thought the team badly missed George Furbank who was a late withdrawal due to a back injury and it demonstrated how quickly he has become an important figure for England.

Feyi-Waboso and Freeman were outstanding. But England weren’t the same running threat in the back three with Freddie Steward and not Furbank alongside them.

When Marcus Smith kicked his penalty in the 49th minute, England were 17-13 ahead. Although four points is hardly a huge lead – far from it in fact at Test level – I was comfortable at the team’s direction of travel. New Zealand were wobbling badly and England were in full control. But then came a raft of substitutions.

England didn’t score a point after that as New Zealand took over the game. Make no mistake these two narrow defeats will hurt Borthwick and his players for a long time. It will be a tough, not to mention arduous flight home for England. They will have hours to kill on that plane and then the offseason to stew over their two losses to the All Blacks.

I’m sure the squad will know that this series was a case of close, but no cigar.

And at the highest level of international rugby, winning is the only thing that matters. And this summer, England didn’t manage it when it mattered most.