Even if many will remain incredulous England were trailing on the last play of the match against the All black people Given the strong position they were in 20 minutes before, they still had a good chance of winning the deathmatch.

Despite a scrum just meters from the All Blacks’ line of 14, England bulked up their lines considerably, resulting in the flyhalf being substituted. George Ford attempting a somewhat disjointed drop goal from 30 yards only a few phases later.

This former English scrum half Ben Youngs It is, he believes, a “very easy situation” that England has somehow overcomplicated.

Speaking on his podcast For the love of rugby A day after the result, England’s most capped player spoke about how he believes England’s backline should have prepared to exploit their numerical advantage with the All Blacks’ center. Anton Lienert-Brown in the dustbin of sins.

Youngs was, however, still in disbelief that England had found themselves in this position after holding a 22-14 lead into the final quarter, although it was now becoming a habit for Steve Borthwick’s side to find new ways to blow up a score. lead.

“In my opinion, England should never have got to this point,” said the Leicester » said the Tigers scrum-half. “At no point, with 12 minutes to go, if you paused the game and told everyone it’s going to be down to a five-yard scrum and a drop goal to win it at some point at the end, everyone would have left.” No, England will take care of it. It should never have come to this.

“Whatever it is, it is. The scrum, Anton Lienert-Brown is in the bin, so they lost a back, which means New Zealand had to defend it in a very different way. There was overlap on both sides, but England completely complicated things and it just wasn’t necessary. So what they did, they went for the scrum in the middle, you couldn’t ask for a better attacking position. We settled with George Ford and George Furbank behind the scrum, directly behind the scrum, and then we had the others on each side. It didn’t have to be this complicated. What we should have done is stacked on the left side and had two players on the right side.

“As the scrum went back and it was a disaster, Harry Randall did the right thing, he just tries to get the ball out. But since he has the ball, he bounces to the right, which would have been easy because if we were upside down, we were stacked right and left, he could have just collected them. The winger couldn’t be there, Anton Lienert-Brown is in the bin, just throw him over the top for a try in the corner. But because we’re stacked behind, Rands swings right, Fordy and Furbank swing left, he doesn’t realize it, so he has to pirouette. He then throws it to George, but by then the defense was gone and we were stopped. Great teams score there, good teams score there, it’s simple.

“Set up on the right, set up on the left, and take them out just because they were down with a man down. As soon as we lost momentum, it only seemed like we were aiming for a drop goal. The best time to score a drop goal is when you have momentum, ball speed and no one expects you to hit it. Everyone knew the drop goal was going to happen in this scenario. The handling of this last moment, for me, should not have come to this, but we also overcomplicated a situation that is very easy.

Youngs was joined by his former Leicester and England teammate. Anthony Watson on the podcast, who disagreed with his analysis.

Although the winger was also stunned that England collapsed the way they did, he believes the setup behind the scrum was correct in the final game, but that’s the platform provided by the pack which derailed England’s plans.

While the execution in the final minutes was chaotic from the hosts, it began to unravel in the scrum, with the All Blacks coming very close to winning a penalty. This meant that Randall and his teammates were immediately behind and were never able to regain the upper hand.

“Having George Ford and Furbank behind, I think, was important,” Watson said. “I think the lack of communication with Rands, combined with the pressure in the scrum, forced what seemed like an over-complication. In fact, I think if they could have run their game with a decent rig it would have been a breeze.

“When you have those two guys behind the scrum swinging one way or the other, especially when they’re in the middle, they’re going to have to steal from the inside. This is when everything opens up to exaggeration. You give Manny (Immanuel Feyi-Waboso) or (Tommy) Freeman five meters either side of their winger, from five meters they score.

“So I think the setup was actually the right option. The platform and lack of potential communication at all levels at this position probably didn’t help. If they had had a solid set piece and been able to get the ball to George, I think it would have been a pretty simple scenario. I understand if they had just split the left and right forwards they could have gone for it, but I think in that position New Zealand would have come in with so much line speed.

“I know it’s certainly not an area that England will be happy with.”