Here are the latest rugby headlines on Saturday, November 19, after Wales suffer a shock defeat to Georgia and England claim a comeback draw against New Zealand.
Faletau reveals dressing room details
Wales No. 8 Taulupe Faletau says the home dressing room was not an easy place to be after the shock defeat to Georgia, and insists the group must stick together.
Less than 10 months before the World Cup, Wales suffered one of their most embarrassing losses on Saturday, going down 13-12 at the Principality Stadium. They will round off their autumn campaign against Australia next weekend.
"Me personally and as a team, we are pretty disappointed with the job today," Faletau, who came off the bench, said. “It’s not an easy place [in the dressing room after a defeat like that]. All heads down, pretty quiet, just trying to piece together what didn’t go quite right.
“Out there, you are giving it your best, you are trying to put your best foot forward and it just didn’t quite go right. It’s difficult to put your finger on. Errors maybe, including myself, I knocked the ball on. That just relieves the pressure that we are trying to create. Errors kept them in the game and we couldn’t keep continuous pressure on them. So errors kind of left them off the hook."
Asked about fans who may be feeling angry with the result, the Cardiff back-rower said: "The supporters are entitled to their opinion, of course. If we don’t deliver and they get on our backs, that’s just part of the game. We have just got to stick together as a group, management and players."
But the 32-year-old forward paid tribute to the strengths of Georgia, who secured their first win over Wales. “Credit to Georgia, they stayed in the game and eventually got the win. Fair play to them, they were tough. They are big physical men and they showed that. They put us under a lot of pressure at the scrum and we couldn’t get clean ball. Set-piece is an important part of the game and towards the end of it, they put us under pressure.”
As for what the coming days will bring, Faletau said there will be both individual and group reviews into what went wrong.
"Individually, I will look back at what I could have done better and I think everybody else will do the same. We will look at how we can help each other while we are out there. You have just got to stick together as a team. We have shown that we can bounce back from low points like this, so we will look to do the same next week."
England produce thrilling comeback to secure draw with All Blacks
England snatched a thrilling draw on an evening of high drama at Twickenham after Will Stuart crossed in the dying seconds to hold New Zealand to a 25-25 stalemate. Trailing 25-6 with nine minutes to go and a distant second best in all departments, Eddie Jones' men exploded into life with two tries from replacement prop Stuart and full-back Freddie Steward.
Less than a minute was left on the clock when Stuart burrowed over close to the posts and with Marcus Smith converting, a hopeless situation had been rescued in the most thrilling way imaginable.
The All Blacks must now live with fresh misery inflicted by England, their defeat in the 2019 World Cup semi-final in the most recent clash between the rivals followed by this extraordinary capitulation. Seemingly fuelled by the frustration of their 19-7 defeat in Yokohama three years ago, New Zealand tore into Jones' side from the first whistle.
They led 17-3 by the interval after crossing through Dalton Papali'i and Codie Taylor, but England's unfortunate rookie scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet helped them with a series of errors.
Rieko Ioane's electric try with half an hour left built what appeared to be an unassailable lead, but England had other ideas in a match that was marred by the fussy refereeing of Mathieu Raynal.
Van Poortvliet has barely put a foot wrong in his six caps, but the 21-year-old scrum-half gifted New Zealand their first try when his pass off a well executed line-out was easily picked off by the lurking Papali'i who ran half the pitch to score.
The All Blacks had started like a freight train and England were stunned when they ran in a second try in the ninth minute, their maul defence crumbling for Taylor to cross. Van Poortvliet's nightmare continued when he was hunted down while taking too long with his clearance kick but the ensuing try by Ioane was ruled out because of a neck roll by the New Zealand centre on Owen Farrell, who was winning his 100th cap.
When they had possession England attacked with urgency through their ball carrying forwards and Sam Simmonds, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola made sizeable dents that forced the tourists to scramble.
An action-packed opening quarter settled down into a series of scrums, penalties and free-kicks with play unfolding between the two 22s, but when the fireworks resumed it was the All Blacks lighting the fuse and only committed home defence limited them to a Jordie Barrett penalty.
Farrell was struggling with an ankle injury and while the centre soldiered on, Smith had taken over the kicking duties to land three points. It was the Harlequins fly-half's delayed pass that created a half-chance for Manu Tuilagi only for the Sale centre to be stopped short and after a tidal wave of pick and goes, England were penalised on the line for going to ground.
An opportunity had gone begging and they were made to pay as the All Blacks sprung into action, seizing on Simmonds losing the ball in contact to construct a brilliant try from their own 22. Beauden Barrett chipped crossfield for Caleb Clarke who turned and offloaded to Ioane on the loop and the outside centre had the gas to race over. Beauden Barrett landed a drop-goal and was then sin-binned for holding on to Smith and England were finally over in the 72nd minute through Stuart.
Less than two minutes later and they were in again, a stunning counter-attack that was finished by Steward shredding New Zealand's defence before another sweeping move was finished by super-sub Stuart with Smith sealing the draw.
Wayne Pivac leaves talk of his future to others
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac straight-batted questions about his future after a humiliating Autumn Nations Series home defeat against Georgia.
Georgia followed Italy earlier this year in claiming a famous Cardiff win, with Wales' catalogue of horrors also including home defeats against the likes of Romania (1988), Canada (1993) and Samoa (2012). Wales have won just three of their 11 games this year, and Pivac - who succeeded his fellow New Zealander Warren Gatland after the 2019 World Cup - will now inevitably feel the heat ahead of next weekend's clash with Australia.
"You have seen a lot of results at the moment that are going against the form-book, and our result is one of those," Pivac said. "I will be here rolling the sleeves up from tomorrow morning, and we will formulate a plan for the week. We are here to do a job, we are totally focused on building towards the World Cup. This is clearly a setback, and we are not proud of that result."
Asked if he felt his position would now be under threat, Pivac added: "Again, that is a question for other people, I would guess. We've done it (turned things around) before. Unfortunately, we've had to do it one time too many from my point of view. It is not a nice place to be.
"Seven days is a long time in rugby, and we will look at it all, including pulling the game to bits. We have to make sure we get the performance we are all happy with and proud of in seven days' time."
Wales conclude their autumn schedule against Australia next weekend.
Tipuric: 'On our day we are a quality side'
Wales captain Justin Tipuric said: "It felt stop-start out there. We would have some momentum and then lose it.
"You can speak out there as much as you want, but unless the reactions happen - which they didn't today - then you are going to be on the back foot. In rugby, there are ups and downs. This is definitely a down moment. We have to stick together. On our day, we are a quality side, so we have to go out firing next week.
"It is tough to be the first Welsh team to lose to Georgia. Unfortunately, you have those tough days in your career, and now it is all about how we react. We obviously planned to finish this autumn strongly and get momentum after beating Argentina. Unfortunately, we didn't do that today. We let ourselves down, and it is a disappointed changing room."
READ NEXT:
The full transcript of Wayne Pivac's tense press conference as job now on the line
Wayne Pivac refusing to give up and says Wales future is 'a question for others'
Shambolic Wales humiliated by Georgia as Wayne Pivac's reign now facing serious questions
Shaun Edwards decides future, reveals England meeting and is open to Wales return
The disastrous Wales player ratings on team's darkest day against Georgia
