Lawes reviews England’s Rugby World Cup semi-final loss to South Africa
England’s heartbroken Rugby World Cup heroes are still yet to get over the pain of their agonising defeat to South Africa as they gear up for their bronze match against Argentina on Friday. It may well be the end of an era for Steve Borthwick’s 23-man squad with several players approaching the end of their international careers, and emotions are still running high in the England camp after their semifinal loss at the hands of the Springboks.
England had led for 78 minutes at the Stade de France with Owen Farrell in fine kicking form before Handre Pollard delivered the critical penalty at the death to send them packing. Their 16-15 defeat means South Africa can retain their title if they beat New Zealand on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Borthwick’s men have to pick themselves up off the ground to ensure they leave with some pride against Argentina. But several players in the squad have admitted to struggling to come to terms with the result in Saint-Denis.
Freddie Steward, who started the match with tears rolling down his cheek, was one of the players most emotionally affected – at least visibly. And the Leicester fullback opened up on how he has not stopped thinking about the game in the four days that followed Saturday’s semifinal.
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“I’ve probably thought about it a couple of times an hour every day I’ve been awake since,” Steward said. “It’s not something that’s going to be very easy to shake off. We’re all devastated, we really are. We gave absolutely everything, fought tooth and nail out there.
“The challenge now is to put that behind us and focus on Friday. It’s a balance between not trying to think about that too much and using some of the pain to try to really step up and make sure we go out there and do ourselves proud.”
Steward’s comments were echoed by his team-mate Ben Earl, with the Saracens flanker conceding it would be “very, very hard” to pick themselves up and go again after watching their World Cup dream go up in smoke.
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With five players expected to leave the international scene behind – Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs, Joe Marler, Danny Care and Dan Cole are among those expected to hang up their white jerseys – Earl also said England’s stars would “lean on each other” to give the players whose Test careers were ending “the send-off they deserve”.
Elsewhere, attack coach Richard Wigglesworth has said the squad and coaching staff have been supporting Tom Curry as World Rugby continue to drag their heels over his racism storm involving South Africa hooker Bongi Mbonambi. And he is confident that the 25-year-old will perform to the same standard if he starts against Argentina.
“Tom is good. I know players will have got around him. Steve and the management team have been all over it. I’m sure he’s getting every bit of support that he needs,” Wigglesworth said.
“I’m not sure you can ever put yourself in those shoes and know that feeling. What I do know is he’s an impressive young man who, if selected on Friday, will pour everything into that England shirt as he has done on the previous 49 occasions.”
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