SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: Why Steve Borthwick must ignore the clamour to start Henry Pollock, the England try that typified his clever coaching - and two criminal mistakes that hurt New Zealand

The image of Henry Pollock standing at the front of England’s response to the haka and licking his lips in anticipation of what was to come was brilliant rugby theatre. 

But those sorts of demonstrations don’t win you Test matches. You have to match such behaviour with a real statement once the action begins. 

And when it did, Pollock and every single England player delivered a performance for the ages. 

What a display it was. This was only the ninth time the national side has beaten New Zealand, so history shows us how difficult it is to achieve. 

It doesn’t matter how you get the better of the All Blacks. But England didn’t just beat Scott Robertson’s men. They put them away comfortably. 

It was their 10th straight win and by far their most important. Once again, Pollock and the bench were outstanding. This was a 23-man effort with strong performances across the board. 

All three of England’s autumn wins so far have followed a familiar theme. As against Australia and Fiji, England’s bench – led by Pollock – was outstanding, providing real impetus. 

What Steve Borthwick is doing with his replacements is very, very interesting. Starting some of your best players on the bench – for example Ellis Genge – goes against everything I believed as a coach. But it is quite clearly working and working brilliantly. 

Before the match at Twickenham, I had an interesting chat with my former player Ben Kay. I asked Ben if he’d had been happy to start as a substitute. His response was short and to the point! 

You can probably imagine what he said. However, the way Borthwick is setting up his England team is to be applauded. He deserves a huge amount of credit. He correctly identified that last autumn, England were failing to close out tight matches. They weakened in the final quarter to lose narrowly. 

Now, the opposite is true with guys like Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry and Pollock really taking the level of England’s performance up another notch when they come on.

Pollock gets plenty of headlines and he was excellent once again. I’m sure there will be clamour for him and others to start.

But I don’t see why Borthwick should change up a winning formula. Pollock and Co will likely have to be happy with remaining on the bench for now and that is the right move because it is for the good of the team.

Why should England change a winning formula when in such a position of strength?

I wrote before the game that should England come out on top, it would represent lift-off for the team. And given the nature of the final score line, that is very much the case. England have really got something to really build on now.

There are two other key points to make from the game.

The first is that England’s No 10 debate must now be over. George Ford was just sensational. Borthwick is in a hugely fortunate position to be able to have a plethora of fly-half riches to pick from with Fin and Marcus Smith rivalling Ford.

Ford now must stay as first-choice playmaker and so long as he stays fit, lead England from that position through to and at the 2027 World Cup. England had been on the ropes in the first half, conceding two tries and falling 12-0 down.

New Zealand had confidence and momentum behind them.

But the All Blacks produced two criminal moments of wastefulness that allowed England and Ford to strike. It meant the team only turned around one point behind when they should have been very much further adrift. New Zealand missed two kicks to touch. It showed a poor basic level of skill execution that you just don’t expect from a side that has traditionally been rugby’s best. At least one of those penalties could have been used to take a shot at goal.

But not only did New Zealand turn down that offer to go for the try, they then made a mess of it. England promptly went up the other end and Ford’s quite brilliant execution of two drop goals changed the complexion of the game in an instant.

The match turned there and then.

If I was Scott Robertson, the New Zealand coach, I’d have gone absolutely crazy at that. To see Beauden Barrett deliver such a poor display, even if he did take a knock, was hugely surprising and summed up New Zealand as a team.

England took advantage and did so brilliantly. Ford pulled the strings. As he showed at the 2023 World Cup, he is a master of the drop goal art. It’s an under-used weapon in the modern game and if executed well, it is virtually undefendable.

Ford showed that to be the case.

His boot was key, but for England to score four tries is very impressive. I particularly liked the Fraser Dingwall try. Dingwall and Ollie Lawrence swapped positions and caught New Zealand napping. It was simple yet effective play and also very clever coaching by Borthwick and his assistants. England look a very, very well-coached team and Borthwick should take immense credit for that.

I’ve talked a lot about England’s centre pairing a lot this autumn.

I haven’t been totally convinced by Lawrence and that is why I have argued Tommy Freeman should be at outside centre for the foreseeable future. Freeman was absent injured for New Zealand.

But to give credit where it is due, I thought Lawrence was outstanding. He packs a real punch both sides of the ball and continued the impressive form he showed against Fiji.

Freeman is set to miss Argentina on Sunday, so Dingwall and Lawrence must continue for the Pumas. England must not slacken off in their final autumn game.

To end the November series with four straight wins would obviously represent a hugely successful campaign.

But it is about more than just the results for this England team.

Their performances have been growing. And, to repeat, England didn’t hang on to beat New Zealand. They blew them away. It’s a big well done to Borthwick, captain Maro Itoje and all the England players from me.

The England players deserve to celebrate this moment. As we know, it doesn’t happen often.