All Blacks too good for England
It was the All Blacks’ 9th consecutive win over England when they beat them in the match played here at Twickenham Stadium, London last Saturday. It was England’s first match of this autumn season, while New Zealand had played one before, which
was against Australia.
Even though, New Zealand finished the match with 14 men, as their hard flanker Jerome Kaino was sent back after being shown a yellow card. But still New Zealand showed England, why they have the 1st ranking in the International Rugby Union’s ranking
and thrash them with the clear margin of 10 points.
There were occasions in the match when England planted lot of pressure on New Zealand and it looked as if New Zealand players would crumble. Even one of the top players of World, Dan Carter, made many errors. But still All Blacks players never allowed England’s
players to come close to their score.
England didn’t start well in the match and England’s play in first 15 minutes was not up to the mark and this was the time, which cost them the match. England’s team have been known to play good quality rugby in 2nd half but don’t start well.
They need to understand if you lose the first half then it is very hard for you to come back strongly in the 2nd half and win the match.
There was another chance for England, when they were behind by only 7 but Carter immediately hit back with a penalty and stretched the gap up to 10.
The match was well in favour of New Zealand at the half time with the score of 17-3 and it never looked that New Zealand will lose the match. But England performed better in the 2nd half and scored 13 points as compared to 3 points in the first
half. England’s performance in the 2nd half helped them to reduce the point margin.
The main problem, which England faced throughout the match, was that they never succeeded in reducing the score gap to less than 7. Whenever they took the gap up to 7 they made silly errors and helped New Zealand to stretch their lead to 10.
On the other hand, this performance from New Zealand is not very surprising. This is just what they do with their all companions. They are really a class team.
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw spoke to media after the victory and said that their team was really upset after the defeat against Australia but after this win, they are really happy. He said they defended very well but admits that they made many small
mistakes, which gave England a chance to put his team under pressure.
All Blacks fans have high expectations from them. Although, they won the match, they did not deliver the performance that was expected from them. Only McCaw and Carter were the players, who performed as usual, but other players never found pace and tempo.
Even Sonny Bill Williams, who made his debut in international rugby in that match, did not perform well. He started very well in the match and looked to be a very mature player but when England was under pressure he did not perform.
England can take something positive away from this match and that is, England never performed very well against New Zealand but in this particular match, they performed better, which will help them in their next matches of this autumn season.
Final Score England 16 (6) New Zealand 26 (17)
Scorers
England
Tries: Hartley
Cons: Flood
Pens: Flood 3
New Zealand
Tries: Gear, Read
Cons: Carter 2
Pens: Carter 4
Referee: Romain Poite (FRA)
Teams
England (15-1)Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Mike Tindall, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto; Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Nick Easter, Lewis Moody (capt), Tom Croft; Tom Palmer, Courtney Lawes; Dan Cole, Steve Thompson, Andrew Sheridan
Replacements: Dylan Hartley, David Wilson, Dave Attwood, Hendrie Fourie, Danny Care, Charlie Hodgson, Delon Armitage
New Zealand (15-1)Mils Muliaina; Joe Rokocoko, Sonny Bill Williams, Ma'a Nonu, Hosea Gear; Dan Carter, Alby Mathewson; Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (capt), Jerome Kaino; Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn; Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock
Replacements: Hika Elliot, Ben Franks, Anthony Boric, Liam Messam, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Isaia Toeava
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