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George Ford twice misses shot at glory as All Blacks edge England
By PA
England were left distraught by another missed opportunity to topple New Zealand after George Ford just failed to convert a late penalty and drop-goal attempt in a 24-22 defeat at Allianz Stadium.
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The All Blacks had regained the lead when Mark Tele’a plundered the second of his two tries, but the hosts were presented with a late chance to snatch victory when Anton Lienert-Brown made a dangerous tackle on Theo Dan.
Ford saw his 77th-minute penalty hit the right upright and once England had failed to make the most of the ensuing short-range scrum, he was also wide with a drop-goal in a heartbreaking conclusion to Autumn Nations Series opener.
England prop Joe Marler had lit the fuse for the match by dismissing the Haka as “ridiculous” and calling for it to be “binned”, but the fireworks promised by All Blacks captain Scott Barrett in response never materialised until the closing stages.
Instead, a disappointingly poor New Zealand were reeled in during the second quarter as England looked to avenge their 2-0 series defeat to the same opponents in July.
The All Blacks showed their killer instinct in scoring first-half tries by Tele’a and Will Jordan, although they were assisted by weaknesses in the home defence that saw Ellis Genge exposed twice.
A steady stream of Marcus Smith penalties, two of them won by England’s dominant scrum, keep the hosts in the fight and the game was turned on its head their fly-half orchestrated a vital score for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
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New Zealand were not done, however, as they engineered a crucial touchline for Tele’a that was improved by a touchdown conversion from Damian McKenzie.
Marler’s view on the Haka was clearly not shared by the 82,000 crowd as they roared on England’s advance to the halfway line to confront the Maori war dance ahead of kick-off.
It was a captivating spectacle that was soon matched by England’s slick start as they used short chips to the wings to move downfield where pressure forced a penalty rifled over by Smith.
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But in a flash the good work was undone when Wallace Sititi sucked in two tacklers and produced a stunning off-load to wing Tele’a, who evaded Genge and danced down the touchline to score.
Smith hit back with a penalty and following some nervy exchanges England were the first to ignite with Maro Itoje make successive breaks, releasing Ben Spencer on one of them.
Serving as a reminder of New Zealand’s threat, Jordie Barrett slipped through a posse of white shirts to launch a counter-attack that ultimately led to their second try through Jordan.
It came when Beauden Barrett and Jordan combined beautifully to manipulate a vulnerability in England’s ruck defence, their vision and speed exposing the unfortunate Genge.
Smith’s boot was all that was keeping the hosts in contention, although a monster hit by Chandler Cunningham-South on Tupou Vaa’i lifted spirits that continued to rise when a scrum penalty produced another three points for Smith.
New Zealand led 14-12 at the interval but Smith turned the tables in the 44th minute when he intercepted a pass by Cortez Ratima, raced ahead and once George Furbank had acted as the link Feyi-Waboso was over for the score.
Smith had read the All Blacks’ intentions brilliantly and the Harlequins playmaker was now centre stage, his fifth penalty completing a massive swing as it came when the tourists had a try disallowed for a deliberate knock-on.
A McKenzie penalty set-up a grandstand finish and it was New Zealand who held their nerve.
Taking Marcus Smith off was a big puzzle and probably cost England the game. However, Abs created more opportunities and scored some tries but left a lot out there through sloppy execution, not playing to the ref and no enforcement of English off-side play. The fact the game was close all through made it worth watching but it was a frustrating spectacle. English succeeded in slowing the game down and were in the refs ear which Gardner allowed. I think Ireland or France will punish the sloppy execution more than England so still much for ABs to work on.
Pretty easy to get in the ref's ear when you got four vice-captains.
There won't be much execution against Ireland and France, sloppy or otherwise.
I cannot believe the ARs didn't call England offside once. Every single time Ratima went to touch the ball, they shot out of the line before he had even touched it. Ridiculous.
Tackling off the ball is illegal, fine. But you can't run a support line where you run into our players and take them out either.
Add to that Maro Itoje and Ben Earl slowing down most rucks and putting their hands on the ball while in an offside position. Earl was very guilty of this in the 2nd half and Angus Gardner gave him a massive let off by kindly telling him to stop.
Just inexperience from Cortez. Old Dogs like TJ or Aaron Smith would been milking penalties left right and centre.
(A master like Faf would have convinced the ref to send someone off and have them shot).
At one point early on the English defense shut us down because Cortez got the ball off a turnover and politely waited for the English player retiring to get out of the way.
An experienced 9 would have passed the ball straight into that retreating player and thrown up their arms at the injustice of it all.
Yep and then late in the game they pinged the ABs for offside
I agree! ARs and Gardner ignored off-sides by England on multiple occasions. That said, the ABs did not adjust to the ref. Unfortunately, the spectacle became messy as a result.
Cheers All Blacks. Knocking the top off a cold one for brekkie. Finding a way to win, & to win late. Well done.
England should have kept Marcus Smith on. He was running hot. Apart from the intercept try England didn't really look like scoring a try. NZ created far more opportunities, but they bombed almost all of them either by giving away penalties, pushing risky passes or knock-ons. Pretty frustrating. Their game management is also way below par.
Thought England got the rub of the green until about 60 mins when the ref started to level up the penalties.
The penalty count after 60 minutes was shown on the tv screen and was 10-2 in England’s favour. That is ridiculous considering the number of offsides that could have been called against England’s blitz defence.
New Zealand got away with that one. Any of those went over and it was the match. Slade gathers the ball from the Garryowne its over. I did think they had slightly the better of the play. Barrett showed his worth by isolating Genge for the second try. Sititi was superb. That one will hurt England.
England's defence was pretty woeful to let in 4 tries, despite 1 of them being disallowed. The All Blacks carved them up all game. England didn't look like scoring a single try.
10 Hail Marys for the lot of them.
So, in short, All Blacks won.