England know this was a chance missed

AFTER Marcus Smith missed a penalty two minutes into the second half from 30 metres out and just to the left of the posts, the outside-half cursed himself with a two-word phrase that England supporters watching at the ground and at home would have struggled to top in terms of bad language.

- PAUL REES

The score was 10-10. England had been awarded the penalty at a scrum having struggled up front in the second quarter after Joe Marler hobbled off and in a game that had largely been dominated by the defences, every point was going to count.

Smith had missed a penalty after four minutes, again awarded at a scrum, from slightly further out and to the right. He would have backed himself to land the kick, especially at a ground that was sheltered from the elements, but it drifted wide.

Even the best have struggled in the stillness of the Forsyth Barr Stadium. Jonny Wilkinson missed five kicks in the 2011 World Cup match against Argentina, unable to pinpoint afterwards why he had been so uncharacteristically inaccurate, saying: “You wonder how you correct something that did not feel wrong.”

Smith let eight points slip in all, failing to draw the ball in when trying to convert Immanuel Feyi-Wabosi’s try from wide on the left, and the question was whether Steve Borthwick would pull him off early, both to bring on another kicker, Fin Smith, and over concerns that the misses would gnaw at Smith and affect his game.

Wilkinson was not a player who let a few wayward kicks derail him and neither was Owen Farrell. As he ran back to face the drop-out following his second missed penalty, berating himself loudly, Smith was facing perhaps the most important few minutes of his Test career.