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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21 Nov 2009, 15:40 pm
Silver Dragons?
21 Nov 2009, 15:43 pm
Here we go, blood capsules at the ready, we are playing England
21 Nov 2009, 15:44 pm
Are England now ranked above or below Leicester?
21 Nov 2009, 15:49 pm
Anyone in London, is the rain holding off as its torrential out where I am in the west country
21 Nov 2009, 15:51 pm
#4 west:
Where in the west country are you?
21 Nov 2009, 15:52 pm
#5 chch – welcome back Laulala: Outside Bristol
21 Nov 2009, 15:54 pm
#6 west:
Ah, you are only just in the West Country. I lived in Somerset for a while.
21 Nov 2009, 15:57 pm
The ABs will, if necessary, outswim the Poms.
21 Nov 2009, 16:01 pm
#8 TheTackler: I know ,I dont think our backs have any hands as i have never seen them pass the ball so we would probably drown
21 Nov 2009, 16:02 pm
AIDOC where can I see the ABs on the net?
21 Nov 2009, 16:04 pm
.stream2watch com forward slash watch forward slash 2822/1/
21 Nov 2009, 16:07 pm
with a WWWhimsically WWWonder WWWomen preceding it
21 Nov 2009, 16:12 pm
What time is it in London now? Not GMT. London time by Dire Straits.
21 Nov 2009, 16:13 pm
I just get adverts?
21 Nov 2009, 16:17 pm
hasn’t started yet. Starts in 15 or 75 minutes.
21 Nov 2009, 16:19 pm
#15 AiDoc:
ok, 15 mins then
21 Nov 2009, 16:27 pm
Radiosports NZ for a radio commentary of intelligence rather than the opium pushing slave trading tosser
21 Nov 2009, 16:33 pm
no stream AIDOC just adverts
21 Nov 2009, 16:38 pm
Click on the live stream line at the bottom.
21 Nov 2009, 16:39 pm
Stream 1 sorry
21 Nov 2009, 16:41 pm
If you have VLC player you can download the British tv.exe and watch on your player. It gives you all the BBC channels. Firewalled here unfortunately.
21 Nov 2009, 16:44 pm
Carter has a chance here. Moody diving.
21 Nov 2009, 16:44 pm
GOAL and now the most successful Kiwi scorer in international footy.
Whooops!
21 Nov 2009, 16:46 pm
First scrum!!
21 Nov 2009, 16:48 pm
Freekick? Why?
21 Nov 2009, 16:49 pm
Intercept!!!!!! Knock on. Whingeing racist crowd!!
21 Nov 2009, 16:53 pm
The Israeli is a real home town referee! Hasn’t forgiven NZ for arresting half the Mossad!
Goal!!
21 Nov 2009, 17:02 pm
Ben Cohen been reincarnated in this new no. 11? Physical and facial resemblance-unbelievable.
21 Nov 2009, 17:02 pm
3 – 3
21 Nov 2009, 17:05 pm
6 – 3
21 Nov 2009, 17:08 pm
England scrum can’t even cheat well.
6 -6
21 Nov 2009, 17:11 pm
Can Thompson read? Clearly has never read the rules.
21 Nov 2009, 17:12 pm
Carter drops it behind himself and the Israeli calls a knock on. Would have been a try!
21 Nov 2009, 17:15 pm
All-in brawl. No yellows but Kaplan hardly ever gives them to MIB opponents. Does not even discuss it and talks about the scrum!!
Carter misses AGAIN!
21 Nov 2009, 17:30 pm
Dan has missed a couple.
ABs not getting momentum. Really hard even to watch with all the English players lying all over the place. Should get some offside calls in the 2nd half (but then there were none in the first half).
Nonu kick was bad …. not sure why he did that.
Actually when Carter dropped the ball in the tackle the communication looked awful. Carter and Nonu cut across Sivi at the same time he threw the pass
21 Nov 2009, 17:31 pm
Should be 6 – 17 but it ain’t
21 Nov 2009, 17:33 pm
The Bokke have not scored for 40 minutes? Still only 0 -12
21 Nov 2009, 17:33 pm
can someone please give brief summary of the 1st half? who had the momentum? who’s looking the better side?
21 Nov 2009, 17:35 pm
IMO Nonu is not the answer at centre. I don’t have the answer but Nonu is overhyped. Yes he did some brilliant things before but have a look at what stage? S14 yes… test level?
21 Nov 2009, 17:37 pm
#38 AndrewBK:
Rubbish mainly. England lying all over the rucks and Kiwis not taking their chances. England had territory but pyrrhic territory.
They will fall in a heap shortly. Running out of O2.
The Israeli has finally made a blunder in NZ’s advantage. Cost the Opium poppies about fifty metres.
Hartley, the goose, forces the Israeli top give NZ a penalty.
Carter goals
6 – 9
21 Nov 2009, 17:37 pm
#39 Hop Hop Spinnekop:
Top try scorer in 3N?
21 Nov 2009, 17:38 pm
#38 AndrewBK:
ABs with slightly more attack. Several periods where England have held NZ stationary but the ABs have made some small breaks.
Video ref try opportunity for ABs but out.
Dan carter missed 2 average difficulty kicks (2 out of 4)
The breakdowns are looking messy
NZ are avoiding kicking more than usual
21 Nov 2009, 17:41 pm
#41 AiDoc:
Yes, but a more technical player would be better at 12 at the moment.
21 Nov 2009, 17:42 pm
Another brawl. Commentator says Hore can bench press a cow.
Johnny is Chicken Man. He’s everywhere he’s everywhere! That’s the third try saving tackle he has made.
21 Nov 2009, 17:43 pm
#40 AiDoc
#42 chch – welcome back Laulala
thanks for the updates
21 Nov 2009, 17:43 pm
#41 AiDoc:
Still, general play is not good… like I said my opinion.
I know Mexted loves the guy, but there is something missing.
21 Nov 2009, 17:44 pm
#43 chch – welcome back Laulala:
Would score more tries? ChCh is in the South Island isn’t it? People down there still think that Deans can coach.
21 Nov 2009, 17:46 pm
Cueto is having a blinder and with Wilko is keeping the opium pushing slave traders in touch.
21 Nov 2009, 17:48 pm
Try Cowan
21 Nov 2009, 17:48 pm
Sivi and Smith do great work and out-ruck the Opium Poppies
Straight up the guts got the Blacks TYRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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