ENGLAND 25-25 NEW ZEALAND
by DAVID NICHOLSON
at Twickenham

ENGLAND committed grand larceny at Twickenham on Saturday as they clawed back 19 points in the last 10 minutes.

The All Blacks had been rampant for 70 minutes with their forwards dominant at the set piece and in loose play.
The home side were trailing 25 points to six when England finally came to the party and played.

Fly-half Marcus Smith threatened to break the try line with a darting run with nine minutes left on the referee’s watch.

All Blacks full-back Beauden Barrett was sent to the sin bin for illegally stopping Smith’s run to the line. 

In the next attack, Will Stuart eventually grounded the ball to get the home side’s first try.

Kyle Sinckler pointed to the significance of the yellow card with nine minutes left as it “played a big part in our revival.

“We struggled to get any momentum in the first half because we kept giving away penalties,” Sinckler said.

To the delight of the 81,000 capacity crowd full back Freddie Stewart struck again two minutes later, and on the 79th minute Stuart got his second try. A simple conversion from Smith brought the scores level for an unlikely draw.

Head coach Eddie Jones was relieved that his side rescued an unlikely draw after it looked as though the All Blacks would be runaway winners.

“I have seen better teams than us fall away against the All Blacks when that far behind and we didn’t,” Jones said.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster was proud of his team. “We played the kind of rugby we have been searching for.

“Test matches are tough and I am pleased with our growth, with our young guys and where we are going.”

Scrum-half Jack Van Poortvliet had a poor game and found that international test rugby is tough when your forward pack is going backwards.

He threw a sloppy pass to let in Dalton Papalii for an easy score and was scragged by Ardie Savea when he dithered with a box kick.

Jones replaced the youngster with Ben Youngs after 12 minutes of the second half as he butchered an attacking opportunity with a knock on.

Youngs won his 120th cap, steadied the ship and helped shape the England revival.

Jones was typically bullish after the game and said that last 40 minutes was the best Marcus Smith had played for England.

“This was a good moment for the team with some of our players playing the All Blacks for the first time.”

Jones was looking forward to next Saturday’s game against the Springboks but said: “We will need to work hard and tidy up our set piece.”