Jamie George was the inspiration behind England’s Haka response before the hammering of New Zealand but admitted he had his doubts over Henry Pollock’s pre-match role.
Steve Borthwick‘s players faced up to the All Blacks‘ famous war dance in a horseshoe or V formation with 20-year-old tyro Pollock licking his lips in anticipation at what was to come.
England’s 2003 World Cup-winning coach and Daily Mail Sport columnist Sir Clive Woodward described England’s actions as ‘brilliant rugby theatre’ with the national side following it with a superb team display.
A convincing four-try, 33-19 victory took England’s unbeaten run to 10 matches. It was their first home success over the All Blacks since 2012 and their first anywhere since 2019.
‘The theory was the oldest would be on one side and the youngest would be on the other. So, I was on one side and Henry was on the other,’ said hooker George.
‘We were quite reluctant to give it to Henry because we weren’t sure what he was going to get up to with Maro (Itoje) in the middle of the V. We wanted to replicate 2019.
Henry Pollock licked his lips as New Zealand performed the Haka pre-match on Saturday
The All Blacks underwent the iconic ritual and England attempted to face off against them
Pollock was on the far left of England’s horseshoe formation, with Jamie George on the far right
‘I felt like starting in a flat line and then heading into the V would be pretty cool.
‘A response like that is great but then backing it up with the performance we did was the most important thing.’
No 10 George Ford was England’s hero with his two drop goals at the end of the first half key keeping Borthwick’s men in touch at the break. England were dominant in the second period, Sam Underhill, Fraser Dingwall and Tom Roebuck all scoring after Ollie Lawrence’s opener. Across the board, England were outstanding as they produced a performance and result for the ages.
Argentina, who staged a dramatic comeback from 21-0 down to beat Scotland 33-24 in Edinburgh on Sunday, are England’s final autumn opponents at Twickenham on Sunday.
A victory over the Pumas would extend England’s winning sequence to 11 and seal a clean sweep of November victories.
Even after the biggest result of his international coaching tenure to date, boss Borthwick believes there is more to come from his team.
He is right because even in what was a convincing victory over one of the game’s best sides, England weren’t as clinical as they could have been. They left points out there and the margin of success could have been even greater.
‘If the players continue to strive to develop, remain ambitious with their dreams and then continue to train at the level they do, then I think there’s a lot of growth (to come), Borthwick said. ‘The big thing that pleased me is they want to improve.
‘The team will never get too high, never get too low. It will just continue to work to improve.’Let’s celebrate this. It is an incredible memory they just created.’
Lock Ollie Chessum and back Tommy Freeman both missed the New Zealand win due to foot and hamstring injuries respectively and won’t be fit for Argentina.
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England were ‘reluctant’ to put Henry Pollock on the end of their horseshoe response to New Zealand’s Haka amid doubt of ‘what he was going to get up to’, reveals Jamie George