All Blacks see off improved Poms
21 Nov 2009
Jimmy Cowan’s second half try helped the All Blacks to a 19-6 victory over England at Twickenham.
After two woeful performances against Australia and Argentina respectively Martin Johnson’s England side produced a vastly improved display against New Zealand but it ultimately wasn’t enough as the Kiwi’s ground out a deserved win.
While the England manager will have been pleased with his team’s physicality and defensive effort, his men lacked the discipline and accuracy to ever really trouble the All Blacks.
New Zealand were once again far from their best, but were a class apart at scrum time and ultimately had too much for their opponents on the day.
England started well but were dealt a blow early on when Joe Worsley was injured and eventually replaced by Tom Croft after just two minutes.
The first point-scoring opportunity fell to the visitors when Lewis Moody was penalised for blatantly entering the ruck from the side. But much to the dismay of the crowd Dan Carter missed the kick that would have seen him surpass Andrew Merhtens’ All Blacks point-scoring record and the scores remained deadlocked.
Despite the early opportunity for Carter and a couple of cynical infringements, England had certainly started the better off the two teams and the bulk of the English fans thought Ugo Monye had given their side the lead in the 11th minute, but he was adjudged to have knocked the ball on in the process of stopping Conrad Smith.
Just four minutes later though and England were finally rewarded for their endeavour as Jonny Wilkinson slotted a penalty after the Kiwis were penalised for not rolling away as referee Jonathan Kaplan continued to stringently govern the breakdown.
If England had forgotten about the attacking threat the All Blacks possessed they were quickly reminded on 18 minutes when from nowhere the visitors spread it wide to Mils Muliaina who was only prevented from scoring the first try of the game by some excellent cover defence from Monye.
Carter eventually, and rightfully, took his place as New Zealand’s all time point-scorer when he nailed a monster kick just inside England’s half to level the scores.
While neither team’s kicking game deserved any notable praise in the first half, the Kiwi pack certainly had the upper hand at scrum time after their mauling at the hands of the Italian scrum last week in Milan.
The two flyhalves exchanged kicks again before yet another poor England scrum presented Carter with an opportunity to put his side in the lead for the first time. Yet once again Carter’s ever-reliable left boot let him down and England breathed a collective sigh of relief as the teams went in level at the break.
The Kiwis finally took the lead just four minutes into the second stanza as England were yet again blown up for a ruck infringement. But while Carter converted the opportunity it was hardly accomplished in the smooth, metronomic style rugby fans have come to expect from the All Blacks flyhalf.
But despite their talisman’s somewhat shaky form, the All Blacks were starting to build up some momentum and finally got the first try of the game with just over a quarter of the game left to play.
The move began from yet another dominant scrum before the ball was spread wide to Sitiveni Sivivatu who spotted a gap and managed to find his skipper Richie McCaw who produced a world-class offload to Jimmy Cowan who rounded off the move.
True to his Jekyll and Hyde performance Carter nailed the resulting conversion from the left touchline to give his team a 16-6 lead.
Having made almost twice as many tackles as their opponents it was inevitable that the hosts would begin to tire and naturally the gaps started to open up for Graham Henry’s troops.
In the end the England defence managed to keep them at bay and keep the score line respectable.
England will certainly take some pride from their performance, but they are still along way from being able to compete with the best the southern hemisphere has to offer and Johnson certainly has a lot of work to do.
New Zealand on the other hand showed enough to deserve the win, the All Blacks still looked far from their best and will certainly need to up their game if they hope to fend off the French next week who will certainly offer more up front.
By Andrew Worling
122 Comments
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22 Nov 2009, 08:30 am
#96 aliboy: I think the scrums were poor on our behalf, we had two reserve props and you guys got the hit on. I’m not a fan of the hit myself, think it causes too many collapses but you did what you needed to and did it well. Stephen Jones doesn’t like Wilkinson, never has really. Contrary to the popular perception he’s Welsh and prefers out and out running 10s like Danny Cipriani and James Hook.
#95 TheTackler: the fact you had to say ‘pretty’ before the ‘huge’ tells its own story tackles, it was a good contest.
22 Nov 2009, 08:33 am
#99 lapoftherugbygods: no offence lap, but I think an honest kiwi would accept NZ don’t deserve to be ranked No.1 right now after being whitewashed 3-0 by SA and beaten at home by France. Still one of the best teams but ’09 is the year of the Bok, no doubt.
22 Nov 2009, 10:05 am
#97 Hondo:
Mark Lawrence.
Im happy with Kaplan regardless but his best days are behind him.
22 Nov 2009, 10:09 am
#101 Big Hit:
Perhaps, but that ‘Year’ isnt over yet.
Its fair to say that in that 2-month period that the Boks reigned supreme. But Rankings are supposed to indicate consistent form over a sustained period, not momentary flashes of brilliance.
If Boks dont beat Ireland and the Blacks beat France in France, there’s no doubt that ABs will deservedly end the Year at no1.
And if France beat the ABs there would be even less doubt that les Tricolors would be no1. No doubt whatsoever.
22 Nov 2009, 10:13 am
Martin Johnson should be sacked.. He was made manager for the worng reasons. You do not make a legendary player a manager because his exploits during the world cup in 2003. The RFU were being naive to think they could get away with having such an inexperienced manager against the best teams in the world..
22 Nov 2009, 10:19 am
#103 WakaNathan: really tho how can you have a team at No.1 which was beaten 3 times by the team at No.2 in recent matches?
Rankings should go year by year I think, they’re more credible that way, best team in a given year wins the IRB team of the year award and then reset the scores for the next year.
#104 Tbozknows: need to take into account injuries, ‘think’ the SA side Jake sent down to NZ/Aus in 2007. You just can’t expect to win with that many players out.
22 Nov 2009, 11:05 am
#93 Big Hit:
Moody ?!
youre taking the p*ss, as usual.
McCaw was named MoM and he was everywhere. Moody was fighting for scraps.
Perhaps this AB team is not a classic. But theyve gone 7 (?) consecutive matches against all NH opposition IN the NH and not only have they won em but the opposition havent scored ONE try.
deserve ? probably more than youre willing to acknowledge, BH.
22 Nov 2009, 11:06 am
#94 Big Hit: LOL Big Hit ,youve got a very good rugby brain and i enjoy reading your post most times ,but where New Zealand is involved you just fail to see all sense because of the dislike you have for them.
I watched the game here in the UK and if u say Wilkinson was better then i dont know what game you were watching dont take my word for it even Stuart Barnes commentating constantly laid out wilkinsons flows of always standing deep he missed a few crucial tackles too and kicked an aimless drop goal when it was on.
As for your 9 injured players tell me who would have made a difference?its always the case with england ,even if vickery and co were there they still would have lost to a not so great All Blacks team ,because ABs would have lifted the game that much more just lyk how england this week lifted their game because they were playing Abs
just the way it is pal ,england are just struggling
22 Nov 2009, 11:13 am
#106 WakaNathan:
AB’s 8 wins on the trot against England now.
22 Nov 2009, 11:17 am
#107 kace:
And just perhaps ………Stuart Barnes might know a thing or two more than Biggles, re #10.s
22 Nov 2009, 11:20 am
#105 Big Hit: You really are a piece of work. France snip an AB side with injuries galore and injuries aren’t an excuse. Carter doesnt get a 3N start untill Sydney but no matter.
England are injury riddled and suddenly oh yeah the result should be nullified. Ditto Jake White. Pathetic.
22 Nov 2009, 11:29 am
How many consecutive games have we beaten England in? 1 in 2006, 2 in 2007, 2 more in 2007 WC, 1 in 2008. That’s 6. What’s so special about the ABs winning 8 on the trot?
22 Nov 2009, 11:30 am
#93 Big Hit:
“I don’t see NZ winning the World Cup waka, and that’s just being honest”.
We are in with a starters chance Biggles.
Your lot may as well stay home, the airfares will be a waste of good money.
22 Nov 2009, 11:34 am
#111 SimiJan:
It’s 33% more special than 6.
8)
22 Nov 2009, 12:39 pm
#86 Delek:
I’m claiming that win
Put the mockers on Aus
22 Nov 2009, 13:15 pm
well, I see Big Hit has his usual line of warped logic again, his hatred for anything All Black is legendary…
good result for what we all acknowledge is not a great AB side, yet..
as for your assumption Big Hit that SA should be number one, does the World Champions losing two games to club sides determine they SHOULD be number 1? surely the number 1 ranked side should be able to dispose of a club team? the fact that NZ have won so many now in the NH and with not one try conceded in all that time speaks VOLUMES…
22 Nov 2009, 22:06 pm
#101 Big Hit: “no offence lap, but I think an honest kiwi would accept NZ don’t deserve to be ranked No.1 right now after being whitewashed 3-0 by SA and beaten at home by France.”
You would have been perfectly right, if each and every year started from scratch (i.e., zero) for every team in terms of ranking points. In that case, surely, South Africa would have been well and truly No1.
In reality, each team carries the baggage of accumulated points. So – when this season started, New Zealand were whopping 3.23 points ahead of South Africa thanks to a great 2008 season and contrary to the Boks who were wooden spoonists as usual. Remember, South Africa have been able to close the gap between 2 nations thanks to WC win where each win had a double worth of points (and SA had 3 wins more than NZ), while NZ rankings were hurted heavily by an early exit.
In a nutshell, John Doe may beat Federer 3 times in a row, it does not make him no1 at once if he was far behind in ATP rankings before those wins.
Plus – ok, SA – NZ 3-0, but SA-Aus only 2-1 while NZ-Aus 4-0. And NZ-Fra 1-1, while SA-Fra 0-1. Does it make France the no1 team? No, it doesn’t. However, SA triumph vs NZ gave them enough points to catch them and eventually overtake, until Frogs knocked them off.
I mean, if we compare only SA and NZ and in this year only, result definitely is in SA favour. If we take in account how both teams played previosly, say, in last 3-4 years (or even since 2003 when ranking points were introduced), the results is definitely not in SA favour, even those doubled WC points who gave them no1 spot where nullified the very next season and NZ regained top spot as usual.
Let’s see things in perspective, not just narrow head-to-head this year.
22 Nov 2009, 22:16 pm
#103 WakaNathan: “If Boks dont beat Ireland and the Blacks beat France in France, there’s no doubt that ABs will deservedly end the Year at no1.”
No. NZ will retain top spot whatever SA do in Ireland, as long as they beat France, and even losing in France, if SA do the same in Ireland. Simple.
22 Nov 2009, 22:30 pm
#117 Nils:
I didnt mean by the technical ranking system, I meant who deserves to be recognised as ‘the Best’.
23 Nov 2009, 12:37 pm
Rankings mean sweet nothing, looks in the troghy cabinet.
23 Nov 2009, 13:21 pm
@WakaNathan: Then I agree with you.
24 Nov 2009, 02:12 am
@Big Hit:
“Wilkinson the superior 10″
gee, youre full of it.
Not 1 paper in print seems to agree with you. Wilko was cr@p, even DC on poor form makes Wilko look limited.
btw – its nb’ed that you dont even have the balls or grace to acknowledge when your team loses. Surely youre Big’er than just subjecting to the standard non-sensical abuse ?
very immature, BH, I actually expected better of you. Im not sure why, come to think of it
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