"We'll be back Stronger" – Freddie Steward: England fullback ready for redemption in Autumn Test against Japan
Yesterday at 07:32 AM
England are set to wrap up their 2024 Autumn Nations Series this Sunday, as they take on Japan at the Allianz Stadium. It has been a difficult campaign for England to say the least, with two last-ditch defeats against New Zealand and Australia, before Steve Borthwick’s side succumbed to a heavier loss to the Springboks this past weekend.
Freddie Steward is one such England star who is eyeing up redemption for the Autumn, with the fullback setting his sights on the incoming Brave Blossoms to close out the campaign with a win. The Leicester Tigers man earned his stripes for his first Autumn involvement this past Saturday, after being unused for the first two weeks of the competition.
Steve Borthwick is set to name the England team tomorrow afternoon, and Steward is eager to be involved as his England team look to chalk up an underwhelming campaign with a victory.
“It's frustrating. We showed for a large part of that game we can go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in the world; for a lot of it we dominated parts, we shot ourselves in the foot which cost us ill-discipline, and gave us a few easy outs when the pressure was on. I think as players we need to take some responsibility and look at ourselves, but we'll be back stronger.
“Over the last couple of weeks we haven't got the results, but we've been close in all three, particularly against the two-time [back-to-back] world champions. We believe in what we're doing and as players we need to take some responsibility for the end there, and try and win that game.”
Steward continues to have full faith in England head coach Steve Borthwick, despite the side enduring a run of five consecutive defeats. The two share a history dating back to Borthwick’s time as Leicester Tigers Director of Rugby, and Steward believes that the recent defeats cast no fault upon the game-plan that the head coach is implementing with the England squad.
“We almost let him down (against South Africa). I don't think the fault should go to him at all. As players we had a game-plan that put us in position to win that game, we've got to look at ourselves as to why we didn't pull away at the end and go back ahead.”
“There were definitely opportunities out there, and there were opportunities today that we didn't take. In Test match rugby you have to take your opportunities, as they don't come around very often. We've got to look at ourselves, and can review those positions in the game where we could have come away with more points, and we'll do that this week.”
“He's an unbelievable coach and rugby player. He has a great rugby brain, is an unbelievable motivator, man manager, and as players we believe in everything he's bringing to this team. The fault today probably lies in our hands. We put ourselves in a position to win that game, and probably were at 50-60 minutes, we were ahead, and again we didn't see it out.”
England’s story of the past six months has been an inability to close out the match for a win, even whilst in leading positions against top tier opponents. Re-winding back to the recent Summer tour of New Zealand, and England were in strong positions to secure their first win against the All Blacks since 2003, yet capitulated for eventual defeats in both the Forsyth Barr Stadium, and Auckland’s Eden Park. This pattern continued into the Autumn, with England fans eager to quell the memory of the last minute losses to New Zealand and Australia.
“Potentially we switched off at key moments.” Steward said, when asked why England are losing in the latter stages. “We miss a clear-out and all of a sudden all that pressure we've created goes, as they win a penalty and put the ball down our end. It's frustrating as it's our own mistakes, it's us as players which is the hardest thing to take, but we'll review those hard and come back better.
“Winning is a habit, and we need to bring that into our team. When you do it a couple of times it is a habit, and you see that with them (South Africa). (Handre) Pollard comes on and has the ability to close that game out against the odds. I have no doubt we'll find that, and it'll come.
There is no denying that England can start a match strong, with a hot-start exemplifying their will to win in the early goings. Against the Springboks, it was Ollie Sleightholme that raced away to score after just three minutes, before eventually allowing South Africa in-roads back towards their own try-line, which the likes of Cheslin Kolbe gladly obliged.
“We came flying out the blocks. We said we wanted to break the game down into little segments and I think we won that first segment brilliantly. Going over early doors got the crowd behind us. But then some ill-discipline from myself gave them an out. That's an example of how we lost this game. We gave South Africa ins and they were clinical.
“As a backfield I think we did alright today. They bought that contestable game as we expected. We did brilliantly covering that space. We didn't win every contest but we gave it a good go. I don't know how many balls Ollie (Sleightholme) won back.”
“You don't want to be consistent with negativity. We'll come back, review what we need to, and attack that Japan game. We want to put on a performance so we can leave this campaign with something to take from it.”
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