Should have, could have, would have: A last minute defeat for England’s Rugby Union Team.

Freddie Waterland on 15 November 2024

The clock is dead. George Ford is waiting in the pocket. He drop kicks to beat the All Blacks and part of the Twickenham crowd erupt.

But, as they see it’s the New Zealand players celebrating and the English with heads in hands they realise they’ve lost, and the ball drifted agonisingly wide. A strange silence envelopes the ground. 

It’s important to establish a few things in the aftermath of England’s 24-22 defeat to New Zealand on Saturday. One such thing is the usually reliable George Ford had a poor cameo and missed two opportunities to finish the game.

However, whilst Ford is eviscerated in the press, two more things are true: England should never have let the game be decided by a drop goal, and Marcus Smith had badly butchered two drop goal attempts earlier in the game.

Smith though for his part was otherwise outstanding, producing the sort of performance against world class opposition that ends the debate as to whether he should be England’s fly half moving forward – if indeed there was one. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso was also outstanding, although his opposite number Mark Telea’a was more impressive still.

A very low penalty count, some excellent defensive efforts and regular entries into the New Zealand 22 leaves the spectator confused as to where it all went wrong for England. 

The answer can be found largely in the contrasting impact had by the two benches and also the scarcely believable try scoring numbers pumped out by the aforementioned Tele’a and Will Jordan (0.7 and 0.9 tries per game respectively).

It will be the bench issue that will worry England most, the usually reliable Dan Cole and promising Finn Baxter penalised in two scrums, massively damaging momentum.

Whilst Nick Isiekwe was comprehensively outplayed by Patrick Tuipulotu, whose explosive carrying served as a potent reminder of New Zealand’s extraordinary depth in talent. 

The solace England can take lies in that they physically matched – perhaps even dominated – a world class side for 80 minutes. Had one kick been a metre to the left, Steve Borthwick’s decision to substitute Ford for Smith would be seen as a masterstroke and a very different narrative would unfold. Yet, it didn’t. Perhaps unfairly England will need now to comfortably dispatch an out of sorts Australia and maybe even beat world champions South Africa to claim this Autumn as a success.

The experience garnered by markedly young squad though will surely be invaluable. 

Words by Freddie Waterland

Verstappen masterclass puts F1 title fight to bed 

Daniel Bloomfield on 14 November 2024

The battle for the 2024 Formula One Drivers’ Championship is all but over after Max Verstappen delivered one of the greatest performances in the sport’s history in a rain-soaked Sao Paulo Grand Prix, leaving his closest challenger, Lando Norris, 62 points behind with only three races to go. 

The Dutchman climbed from 17th on the grid to claim victory, whilst Norris, starting from pole position, could only manage sixth place, meaning that Verstappen will be world champion after the next race in Las Vegas if he finishes ahead of Norris. 

This was Verstappen’s first win since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, and he was understandably elated as he crossed the finish line, a world away from the anger he had been feeling just hours earlier, after an unfortunately timed red flag in the second part of qualifying condemned him to starting towards the back of the grid. However, with two drivers ahead of him unable to start the race, and five overtakes in his first tour of the circuit, by the end of lap one the Dutchman was already in a points scoring position.  

More overtakes followed, reaching fifth place by lap 27, when luck began to turn his way. An off from Nico Hulkenberg caused a virtual safety car, motivating Norris and race leader George Russell to pit, placing them behind Verstappen in second, and the two Alpine drivers, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, in first and third respectively, all of whom had chosen to remain on track in the hope that a red flag would provide them with a “free” pit stop. This ended up being the right decision, as a heavy shunt from Franco Colapinto led to the race being suspended, vaulting Ocon into the net race lead, with Verstappen in second, whilst Norris fell to fourth place.  

Ocon remained in the lead at the restart, and Verstappen held on to second, whilst Norris went off track at turn four, causing him to drop to fifth place, however the race was neutralised again only a few laps later, after Carlos Sainz found the barriers at turn eight. 

Verstappen made the most of this, overtaking Ocon at the restart and subsequently driving into the distance, whereas Norris slid off-track again, and fell to seventh. By the time the chequered flag flew 26 laps later, Verstappen had built an almost 20 second lead over the pack and secured the fastest lap of the race, whereas Norris had only gained a single position, one that was given to him when McLaren ordered his teammate, Oscar Piastri, to let him past. 

Verstappen was joined on the podium by both Ocon and Gasly, catapulting Alpine from ninth to sixth in the Constructors’ championship. The French team’s double podium is arguably the most shocking result of the season; however, it is testament to Verstappen’s brilliance that it is not the biggest talking point of the weekend.  

This was a performance that will surely be remembered for decades to come. With championship momentum swinging away from him, and in the midst of his longest victory drought since 2020, the Dutchman silenced his doubters and put all talk of a title battle to bed.  This is only the fifth time in F1 history that a race’s victor started from lower than 16th on the grid, with pundits, team principals and drivers comparing it to some of the most awe-inspiring drives of history, including Lewis Hamilton’s dominant victory at the 2008 British Grand Prix, and Ayrton Senna’s famous performance at Donington in 1993. 

To be compared to two of the greatest drivers in history is no mean feat, but it is truly deserved praise for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman is only 27 years old and is already on the verge of becoming a four-time-world champion, five years younger than Hamilton was when he claimed his fourth title, and he already has the second most Formula One race victories of all time.  

But he still had his haters, who would claim that his success was solely due to his car, or that he was incapable of racing wheel-to-wheel. But now there will be no doubters. Surely this was the performance that let everyone know that Max Verstappen is one of the greatest drivers Formula One has ever seen. 

Words by Daniel Bloomfield

Who decides what I wear?

Christelle Al Abbasi on 13 November 2024

Fashion is all about finding the balance between expressing who we are and fitting in with what’s around us. Christelle explains It’s about crafting a style that’s uniquely ours while navigating the influence of trends and others.

Pakistan to Pakistan. Bazball Two Years On – Will It Stand The Test Of Time?

Henry Eccles on 12 November 2024

England’s recent defeat in Pakistan signals about two and a half years since the start of the Stokes/McCullum tenure, and about 2 years since the 3-0 romping by England, last time out, in Pakistan.

These two years are intriguing, and the conclusion of the 2022 Pakistan series marked a shift in people’s perception of the Bazball ideology. The novelty of aggressive and entertaining cricket was by no means wearing off, but instead questions were raised about the sustainability of such an approach across an 18 month period that included the Ashes and an away trip to India.

People talk about the idea of the journey being more important than the destination, and the one that Stokes and McCullum and Co. have taken us on over the last 24 months has been filled with drama, disappointment, thrill, and everything in between. It’s been one of the most pivotal two-year periods in English red ball history, and it’s one I’m keen to explore.

After Pakistan “22, the next time England played a test series was February 2023, away, in New Zealand. One of the less watched contests under McCullum and Stokes, the first of two tests against The Kiwis was a microcosm of everything we had come to expect from England, under the new leadership group; including an aggressive declaration, runs from Harry Brook and Joe Root, a short cameo from Stuart Broad batting at 4 and ultimately England emerging victorious.

The series would finish 1-1 after a thrilling finish to the second test which saw New Zealand, after following on, bowl England out for 256 in the fourth innings, just 2 shy of their 258 run target.

Despite only getting a draw England’s absolute commitment to ultra-positive cricket foreshadowed what would be the most enthralling ashes series for a generation.

…

Back to the present for a moment. England are coming off the back of a really disappointing series in Pakistan where, in spite of scoring 823/7 in one innings, they were beaten, comprehensively by the opposition’s spinners. This has been met by a wave of criticism from pundits, and in particular ex-players. The man who seems to be bearing the bulk of this scrutiny is Ollie Pope and from my perspective, this seems unfair and rather fickle.

When Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool in 2015 Adam Lallana was not the best player at the club, but he was one of the first to buy into the culture that the German manager proposed, and without him, there is an argument that Liverpool don’t have such profound success so quickly.

Now it’s important to note here that I think Ollie Pope will go onto have a more prosperous career playing for England than Lallana had playing for Liverpool, but the idea rings true nonetheless.

Even beyond the cultural impact Pope has had in bringing about England’s change in fortune the most recent domestic summer saw him captain England to a series win against Sri Lanka, score 1x 100, 1x 150 and win player of the match in a test against the West Indies. One poor series, off the back of a successful summer, in conditions that even, in the case of the second and third test, the most successful struggled in doesn’t seem like cause for execution.

This isolated incident represents what I believe a wider problem to be in English cricket, and more positively why I think Bazball will stand the test of time.

In an era where so much analysis and commentary from pundits and ex-players is black and white, offering unwavering support when results are positive but calling for heads when the chips are down, England just don’t seem to care. They’ve made a big show of coming out in press conferences and saying they don’t care about the results only entertainment; I don’t think this is true. They’re professional athletes, of course they want to win, those are just outlandish statements to get the underlying point across – “no matter how much positive or negative support this gets, we’re sticking to our guns, we’re going to play this way”.

I think it’s working.

…

It was by no means the biggest event of the 2023 Ashes series, but I vividly remember where I was when Zac Crawley pumped Pat Cummins through the off side to get us underway for the best series of test cricket I’ve ever watched.

I was making a sandwich, with the game open on my laptop and volume turned right up. To hear the English crowd and commentators roar, just as their Australian counterparts had two years earlier, as Mitchell Starc’s half volley had crashed into Rory Burns’ leg stump, was blissful.

I won’t dwell for too long on the intricacies of each test match as after two documentaries and a BBC Sport advent calendar I feel as though those who want to be up to date on it, are so. But, in my eyes, it was the greatest test series for a generation.

I’ve mentioned the first ball here because it continues my point. In the runup to the series there was so much anticipation and discourse around Bazball, and “would England continue to play in the same way?”. For Zac Crawley to stand and deliver off the first ball of the series was a statement and it rung true all summer.

Thinking back now, we get swept up in “What if Manchester?” and Broad’s fairytale finish but there was a point where we were 2-0 down and on the brink of losing The Ashes and so much of what Stokes and McCullum had worked for was looking like it would be undone.

There was a great deal of noise. Cries that this new style of play couldn’t work against the highest quality test nations. But this didn’t appear to permeate the walls of The Bazball camp. To come back from 2-0 down in Ashes series and be within touching distance of regaining the urn takes tremendous amounts of mental strength; arguably more than we give these boys credit for.

…

England have just lost in Pakistan and the media is calling for heads. All of a sudden, despite accumulating the 4th highest test score of all time, after two test match losses the selection methodology of Stokes and McCullum is flawed.

We’ve been here before; we’ve seen this before.

Analysis in cricket is too black and white, and Bazball will stand the test of time.

England were 2-0 down in the ashes and no negativity, seemingly, permeated the Bazball bubble. Stokes and McCullum made slight adjustments within a squad of players they had picked and we went from The Ashes almost being over with 2 tests still to play, to being within one sunny day of a historic test series victory.

Bazball doesn’t just refer to a manner of playing Test Match Cricket, it outlines a culture. There are clips of Stuart Broad explaining how they want the dressing room to be a haven of positivity, and the way Broad specifically went about implementing it is by stating something positive every time he enters the room. It could be about his morning walk, or his coffee. With the excitement there is around playing for England at the moment, and the constant stream of new young players coming into the setup, this positivity doesn’t feel like something that is fading, or will begin to soon.

Despite losing to Pakistan, history indicates that England won’t let this negativity get to them. There were good signs throughout the seires as well; Jamie Smith was excellent in conditions that were tough for a keeper and our batting, when not spinning sideways, looks to be in an excellent space.

I can’t wait for the Ashes.

Words by Henry Eccles