Steve Borthwick defended his decision to bring off Ben Spencer and Marcus Smith as England kicked off their Autumn Nations Series campaign with an agonising defeat by New Zealand.
England had looked on course to secure a first win over the All Blacks at Twickenham since 2012, but eventually fell to a 24-22 loss after a dramatic finish.
Borthwick’s side had been eight points clear going into the final 20 minutes of the game after a faultless kicking display from Smith and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s try, teed up by a Smith intercept and break.
Fly-half Smith was taken off shortly after that, though, and scrum-half Spencer was also substituted.
New Zealand fought back to win the Test from there, scoring 10 unanswered points through Damian McKenzie’ penalty and a second converted Mark Tele’a try.
Smith’s replacement, George Ford, then crashed a penalty off the post before missing with a last-gasp drop-goal attempt to spurn two chances for England to win it late on.
“I think when you have got players of the calibre of those guys, the guys that came off the bench, look at the threat that Harry Randall is and the experience George Ford brings,” said Borthwick.
“We were in a position to win that game. You have got to always respect the opposition are there. New Zealand are a quality side.
“Since we last played together, they have played seven Test matches. They have been together for three months.
“It’s a different context to where we are at and credit to them. We will be better next week.”
He added of England’s late misses: “There is a lot of experienced players on the pitch then, they know what we are trying to do.
“I think if you look over the last period of time, the team in those drop-goal situations has been pretty successful.
“We weren’t today, but ultimately this is the width of a post. That’s the reality. This is the width of a post.
“The result goes one way or the other - and that’s the nature of Test rugby, where you have got two good teams. And they were two good teams today.
“I think that, to be put in a position where you are winning by the margin that the team were at that point in time, then there is clearly an opportunity to win the game.
“There are things why we didn’t, against a very good New Zealand team. We gave them a window to get back - and they took it.
“If you look at that New Zealand team, you have got to credit them. 10 players from the World Cup final were playing there. More than a thousand caps. They had more caps in their 15 than we had in our 23.
“But this England team, led by Jamie [George], I think really played smartly today. And, unfortunately yes, we didn’t get the win we wanted, but I think everyone can see that this team is developing into a very strong team.”
