England attack coach Brian Smith has taken responsibility for the team's lacklustre display against Argentina and promised a sharper cutting edge this weekend when the All Blacks come to Twickenham.
Although England won 16-9 against the Pumas, thanks to Matt Banahan's try 10 minutes from time, for much of the match, and in the first half especially, they kicked away nearly all the ball they received and seemed almost frightened of initiating any sort of handling move.
Even some members of the usually tolerant Twickenham crowd booed England off the pitch at half-time last Saturday following an opening period where a Pumas side without injured playmakers Juan Martin Hernandez and Felipe Contepomi had at least tried to attack.
It was all a far cry from the flowing game Smith's teams produced when he was director of rugby at London Irish.
But the former Australia and Ireland international explained he'd been overly influenced by the weather conditions before kick-off at Twickenham.
Smith, also a member of England's backroom staff when they drew a two-Test series against Argentina 1-1 in June, said on Tuesday: "We wanted to take the game to Argentina, like we did in the two games in the summer but we got off the bus and it was bucketing down.
"We pulled the group together and said 'let's just make sure in the first 20 minutes that we don't get caught in our own half'.
"I put my hand up - I was the guy who said to the boys 'we have to be conservative in the first 20 minutes, we can't get bogged down'," he added.
"In hindsight, I wish I'd kept my mouth shut, because things might have been different. So you can't hang the players out to dry for what happened in that first 20 minutes, they were under instructions.
"We were conscious of it being a banana-skin game for us and we didn't want to be chasing it.
"To be fair, after 20 minutes the boys had realised. The boys started to make the adjustment.
"The perception might have been that we were playing for a 0-0 draw but in the second half we were really going after them."
Looking ahead to Saturday's match, England's last of a November series which started with an 18-9 loss to Australia, Smith said: "If New Zealand kick loosely to us, we're going to have a crack but we expect they will want to play ball in hand as much as they can.
"I still regard the All Blacks as the benchmark team. I know South Africa have got the (world) title, but in terms of challenges New Zealand always will be the Everest in rugby terms, certainly in my eyes.
"We've got challenges but coming into this series we had scored 24 times in eight games.
"The improvement we showed over the Six Nations when we spent some time together gives me a lot of confidence that we can move forward with this group.
"We have to, because we are preparing them for this series and the World Cup coming up (in New Zealand in 2011)."
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
