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, 17:51 pm
Justin.tv/twomint
21 Nov 2009, 17:52 pm
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21 Nov 2009, 17:53 pm
Waste Jonny.
21 Nov 2009, 17:54 pm
England must score now, or they never will.
21 Nov 2009, 17:55 pm
Wilkinson panics and tries a drop. The 2005 Lions tried 29342 times for a field goal and succeeded never! Good to see traditions observed.
21 Nov 2009, 17:56 pm
Wow what rubbish from England.
Really need to do things at a much faster pace. Kiwis just lining them up.
21 Nov 2009, 17:57 pm
#54 SodaJoe:
Haven’t scored a try for years!
The big brown eyed boy botches it. The brown eyed kid, Zac scares him! England might have scored.
21 Nov 2009, 17:58 pm
Mils of old. Lovely lovely glide.
21 Nov 2009, 17:59 pm
Shaw is GONE!!!!
Muli and Smith almost!!
21 Nov 2009, 18:01 pm
Pros. Just keep it simple and take the points.
21 Nov 2009, 18:01 pm
TRYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6m
4m
1m
Penalty and NO NO Yellow Card!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The man who has never read the rules, Thompson not carded!!!!!
Penalty
GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
6 – 19
Money for jam!!
21 Nov 2009, 18:04 pm
The Express is on. Great music! Borich Express for you young guys…. Google it!
21 Nov 2009, 18:06 pm
Ellis for Cowan
Some OPST subs too but I have never heard of them.
21 Nov 2009, 18:06 pm
Martin Johnson must be on thin ice by now.
21 Nov 2009, 18:07 pm
GREAT break by Croft. Excellent player.
Great tackle Carter.
21 Nov 2009, 18:08 pm
Wilko and DC have spent most of the night tackling.
OPST’s stuff another try. DC tackles.
21 Nov 2009, 18:11 pm
A rugby ball can be a cruel pill. Unlucky Roses.
21 Nov 2009, 18:11 pm
The Bokke have finally had a win but it does not affect their IRB ranking. MIB win will put them further ahead.
Have to beat Barnesey’s French mates next week to keep it.
21 Nov 2009, 18:12 pm
#67 SodaJoe:
Opium Poppies
21 Nov 2009, 18:12 pm
England just don’t look like they can score.
21 Nov 2009, 18:13 pm
#69 AiDoc: LOl. Richie MoM. Deserved I think.
21 Nov 2009, 18:14 pm
Poppies blow it. Line outs have been fairly even so far. This is a tester. OPST throw. MIB on attack.
Short line out. Cowards. Balls up and scrum to Poppies.
21 Nov 2009, 18:16 pm
An ugly win, but a win all the same. Unbeaten on the EOYT.
21 Nov 2009, 18:17 pm
The only real try against the Kiwis in four years in the north was by Monster.
6 – 19
Ghastly
21 Nov 2009, 18:18 pm
Great game coming up. The Kiwi Sheelas v. the OPST Dykes.
21 Nov 2009, 18:19 pm
#71 SodaJoe:
Yes and the Bokke guy with the Polish name is the next Richie don’t you think?
21 Nov 2009, 18:19 pm
#64 SodaJoe:
its cracking…
21 Nov 2009, 18:39 pm
Whats new?
21 Nov 2009, 18:44 pm
#73 TheTackler: Not surprising really – they should be fresh after the pathetic effort they put in the “big league” this year!
21 Nov 2009, 18:56 pm
Leicester and Saracens? No, the ABs beat the whole of England. Not just a mere lowly club or two. And, of course, they won quite handsomely in spite of their (snigger, snigger) “travel disadvantage”…
21 Nov 2009, 19:04 pm
Seriously,
NH challenge = France and….ummm….well….errr
France should join the Tri-Nations with Argies…they are too good for the 6N and are being dragged down year after year by the other NH teams to their **** level
21 Nov 2009, 19:18 pm
Does anyone else think the turf played a critical role in slowing down the ABs to The Poms advantage?
21 Nov 2009, 19:31 pm
#81 The_Green_Machine_is_a_Mean_Machine: Argie just got SMOKED by the Welsh dragons, man. Argie is third-rate.
21 Nov 2009, 19:44 pm
#82 TheTackler:
I didn’t say Argies should join the TN
They are already invited
I’m saying France should join them too
21 Nov 2009, 20:10 pm
#84 The_Green_Machine_is_a_Mean_Machine: Argies are easybeats.
21 Nov 2009, 20:21 pm
#80 The_Green_Machine_is_a_Mean_Machine: France finished 3rd in the 6N and 4th the year before. Who’s dragging who down?
21 Nov 2009, 21:08 pm
#80 The_Green_Machine_is_a_Mean_Machine: Scotland, one of the weakest 6N teams have just beaten Australia. Who says SH teams are much better?
21 Nov 2009, 21:49 pm
Glad to see English playing well for a change, when they will play awesome (for example, like in 2002/03), they will be able to beat NZ again. Until that ABs win is a given, unless they play an utter ****.
Well done ABs, yet again no conceded tries.
21 Nov 2009, 21:51 pm
#74 AiDoc: I think, Frogs have scored against them in 2006 second Test at home (11-23) after almighty thrashing in week before.
21 Nov 2009, 22:23 pm
Despite what many may think, it was a great game. England competed well but were let down by poor handling and decision making inside the AB’s red zone. JW had a reasonable game, but his decision to attempt the DG cost England their only real chance to score a try.I’m not sure if he still is the future of English rugby. Then again, I don’t know if they have a pivot capable of filling this role. For the AB’s to hold them out speaks volumes for their ability to hang in there, then quickly maneuver players to score trys. Overall, happy with the result.
22 Nov 2009, 02:02 am
I was surprised that the hyena brigade of England’s rugby press hasn’t started yet their customary Jonathan Kaplan’s bashing
The poor sods, it must be the only satisfaction and comfort they have drawn last few seasons,,
LOL
22 Nov 2009, 02:44 am
ABs didnt even need to get out of 2nd gear today.
McCaw is King
22 Nov 2009, 02:45 am
#90 Hondo:
to be fair, he was odd both ways today.
The Kaplan of today is not as sharp as he was 3-4yrs ago, when he was the best whistler around.
22 Nov 2009, 04:02 am
#91 WakaNathan: NZ couldn’t step it up. Moody was the best backrow player on the field, you’re lucky our forwards burnt out. I don’t see NZ winning the World Cup waka, and that’s just being honest. That wasn’t close to our best team and they struggled with them.
22 Nov 2009, 04:05 am
#89 horiman: Carter wasn’t very good to be honest, choked a bit when the pressure was on, no surprise there. Wilkinson the superior 10 for most of the game but needs better players outside him to provide a greater attacking threat, Hipkiss and Erinle aren’t the answer.
22 Nov 2009, 05:07 am
ABs didn’t “struggle”. They burnt off the Poms easy-peasily by a pretty huge 19 to 6. An absolute doddle. Walk in the park.
22 Nov 2009, 05:49 am
#94 Big Hit: I am glad that wasn’t the best English team. Whilst they played with more passion today, and defended pretty well, their attack was just embarrassing to watch, and not what you would call entertaining (or threatening) in any way.
As for the Carter/Wilkinson match up, Carter had an off day with the boot (by his 31 from the previous 32 standards) but looked more dangerous on attack. Both defended pretty well, with both pulling off some critical tackles at times. AB’s also had better field position for much of the game, so not sure why you say Wilkinson was superior? His drop goal clanger even rated a negative comment from the ‘great’ (at least in his own mind) S Jones.
Overall it was an average AB performance that disposed of a poor English team that pleased their fans because they weren’t as woeful as they were the week prior. I guess it is all a matter of perspective.
One thing I did note that the English scrum mostly stood square and stayed up even when under pressure. They also got the odd good hit on the AB’s, so the scrums were a decent contest. Good to see after last weeks fiasco.
Last comment is about Kaplan. I like Kaplan (usually), but he seemed to have trouble with his positioning more often than usual last night. He seemed to be getting in the way of the play more than normal. Might be just a one off, or might be that he is slowing down a bit. Be interesting to see how he is in his next few games.
22 Nov 2009, 06:57 am
#92 WakaNathan:
Name a better one, please,
Bryce Lawrence?
Craug Joubert?
Allain Rolland (handed the ABs on plate to the Boks in Bloem)
Chris White?
22 Nov 2009, 07:02 am
What do we define as ‘improved’?
A Test match lost on home ground in front of 80,000 vocal Poms?
Is a aesult of 6:19 when the try line never realistically in reach now stands for ‘improved’?
I am little bit at loss to explain
22 Nov 2009, 07:40 am
#93 Big Hit: That wasn’t close to our best team. It never seems to be the best team . NZ fans know that its not the best AB team but its still the ABs win or lose and every player whoever is selected is supposed to front up
When will England’s best team actually show up. Thats 8 losses in a row to NZ over England.
To say that Wilkinson was the better fly half is laughable. Carter had what was for him an off day yet he still was the most dominant player on the pitch. Wilkinson is a great tackler and goal kicker but thats it.
Carter has a complete game. Wilkinson does not.
This is an All Black team in transition, one of the weakest in years yet they are still ranked no 1 in the IRB ratings. Thats the difference between NZ and the rest of the world. They are still expected to win even in the down periods
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