Skipper Jamie George refused to point the finger at George Ford after his double miss condemned England to yet more heartbreak.
Ford missed a penalty and a drop goal at the death against New Zealand at Twickenham as England went down 24-22 having led 22-14 on the hour.
It was another near miss for the Red Roses who in the last 13 months have lost three close games against the All Blacks and others against France and South Africa.
The only one they have got over the line was in March when Marcus Smith’s drop goal claimed a 23-22 win over Ireland.
They tried to produce a similar trick through Ford, a 62nd minute replacement for Smith, but came up short again.
But hooker George would not throw Ford under the bus after his drop goal, hit off balance and on the back foot, went wide to the right.
George said: “If that kick goes slightly more left, we are talking about a very different result. He hasn’t missed many in his career so we certainly can’t blame him for that. We actually did what we had spoken about. We had spoken about being in that exact position, we walked through being in that exact position and we felt like we were in control of it. We kept attacking them and unfortunately George missed the kick.”
Boss Steve Borthwick was left to reflect on another chance gone begging after they had their foot on New Zealand’s throat. You can add this two-point defeat to the 16-15 reverse in Dunedin and the 24-17 loss in Auckland meaning England have lost their last three games against Scott Robertson’s side by a total of 10 points.
But Borthwick struck a defiant note claiming his team were on the up ahead of games against Australia, South Africa and Japan.
The head coach said: “When you are in a position when you are winning by the margin we were at that time, there is clearly an opportunity to win the game. It is pretty clear why we didn’t against a very good New Zealand team. We gave them a window to get back and they did it.
“They had 10 players from the World Cup final and had more caps in their 15 than we had in our 23. We didn’t get the win we wanted but everyone can see this team is developing into strong team. But New Zealand are a quality side and since we last played together they have had seven Test matches and been together three months.”
Missed chances let All Blacks off hook
And he joined his captain by refusing to pin the blame on Ford who cut a disconsolate figure at the final whistle. Borthwick himself was shellshocked straight after the game, staring at his laptop in the coaches’ box and wondering how England had lost another one.
He added: “There are a lot of experienced players on the pitch and they knew what we were trying to do. The team in those drop goal situations has been pretty successful. We weren’t today but it is the width of a post, the result goes one way or the other. That is the nature of Test rugby.”
After a week dominated by the Joe Marler haka storm, England faced the challenge by marching about 5m to the halfway line to eyeball the Kiwis. Marler left camp on Monday for personal reasons, a day before saying the haka should be binned, and was not in the 23.
“It is something I had been thinking about for a couple of weeks,” George said. “I had spoken to senior players and Steve and it was not a reaction to Joe. I had spoken to Joe about the possibility of doing it, and he enjoys putting things on social media so that was how that went! As a response to the haka we always wanted to do it in a very respectful way. The atmosphere was electric with New Zealand advancing as well and it just adds to it.”
New Zealand captain Scott Barrett admitted his side had got away with one for the third game in a row against England.
He said: “They had every opportunity to win it. Going back to the last series, there have been three tight encounters and they had the opportunities to get their nose in front.
“They are a dangerous team but we potentially played a bit more rugby than them. I was pleased with our endeavour.”
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