A perfect 10 wins in a row is a reliable indicator of a team on the rise. What England really craved, though, was a statement victory to underline just how far they have come in the past 18 months or so. And on a dull grey November afternoon they finally secured it, beating a disappointed New Zealand for the first time in south-west London for 13 long years.
They deserved it, too, storming back from 12-0 down to claim the kind of result that rewards all the painstaking hard work of the players and the management. There were four England tries in all, including two in the final half-hour from Fraser Dingwall and Tom Roebuck, as Steve Borthwick’s team become only the ninth England side to cut the All Blacks down to size.
The big result also owed a lot to one of the smaller men on the field. Borthwick predicted this week that George Ford would one day assume the England head coach mantle and the fly-half’s stock as a playmaker has rarely been higher. Two inch-perfect drop goals in the first-half changed the momentum of the contest and after the interval his generalship helped to keep his teammates one step ahead of their pursuers.
It all made for a stirring brew. In the car park beforehand even battle-hardened former red rose legends were sniffing the air and pronouncing they just had a feeling about England. This time their instincts were correct as the hosts won the second half by the convincing margin of 22-7. This New Zealand side do not have the pedigree of some of their predecessors but they have still been good enough to see off Ireland and Scotland this month.
Nor do famous wins get routinely handed over on rarefied occasions such as this one. The sense of expectation was scarcely diluted by the sight of England forming a deliberate semi-circle in response to the pre-game haka, echoing the V-shaped formation that preceded their famous 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final win in Yokohama.
Initially, though, it merely seemed to galvanise the All Blacks further. It was the visitors who struck twice within the first quarter, scoring two tries inside five minutes to puncture any semblance of English conceit. First the winger Leicester Fainga’anuku burrowed over on the left before a beautiful long pass from Beauden Barrett sent Will Jordan skimming away down the middle and launched a sustained attack which resulted in the hooker Codie Taylor going over.
A sizeable early deficit was not part of England’s masterplan so it was a significant relief when a missed tackle by Leroy Carter allowed Ollie Lawrence to surge on and score at the other end. On the debit side the home side were soon forced into a change at full-back, with Freddie Steward leaving the field for a head injury assessment never to return.
England Steward (M Smith, 21); Roebuck, Lawrence (Cunningham-South, 78), Dingwall, Feyi-Waboso; Ford, Mitchell (Spencer, 72); Baxter (Genge, 55), George (Cowan-Dickie, 43), Heyes (Stuart, 55), Itoje (capt), Coles, Pepper (Pollock, 55), Underhill (T Curry, 55), Earl. Sin-bin Earl 63. Tries Lawrence, Underhill, Dingwall, Roebuck. Cons Ford 2. Pen Ford. Drop goals Ford 2.
New Zealand Jordan; Carter, Proctor, Tupaea (Lienert-Brown, 55), Fainga'anuku; B Barrett (McKenzie, 54), Roigard (Ratima, 44); De Groot, Taylor (Taukei'aho, 66), Newell (Tosi, 55), S Barrett (capt), Lord (Darry, 66), Parker (Taukei'aho, 48-54; Sititi, 54), Savea, Lakai. Sin-bin Taylor 41. Tries Fainga'anuku, Taylor, Jordan. Cons B Barrett, McKenzie.
Referee Andrea Piardi (It). Att 81,953.
Marcus Smith’s arrival, though, coincided with England shaking off their torpor. New Zealand’s basics began to wobble, with Beauden Barrett guilty of kicking the ball dead from a penalty at a crucial juncture and Cam Roigard making a hash of another similar opportunity. Their inaccuracy was in striking contrast to Ford’s marksmanship, his two sweetly struck drop goals reducing the half-time margin to a single point.
England would have taken that before kick-off, particularly given the All Blacks did not concede a single penalty in the first 40 minutes, depriving England of the platform from which to build sustained pressure. Nor did it help that three English lineouts went astray in the first half, the kind of detail that often gets lost but makes a massive difference to a team’s fluency.
Suddenly, in terms of the prevailing fan mood, a stadium of flat whites was replaced by several long black expressions, not helped when Taylor was shown a yellow card for knocking the ball out of Smith’s hands on the floor. Within three minutes of the restart England took advantage to register their second try, the influential Sam Underhill crashing through Barrett to score.
With New Zealand still a man down there was almost a third try, the Italian referee Andrea Piardi eventually calling play right back for offside at a lineout after Ford had sprinted away following a dislodged ball in midfield. Rugby’s ability to find hairline calls to argue over for days has seldom been greater.
There was absolutely no disputing the slickness of Dingwall’s game-breaking score, however. The All Blacks seemed to momentarily switch off as England took advantage of quick lineout ball to send Lawrence steaming down the 12 channel. With New Zealand expecting him to keep on going, the Bath centre cleverly took out two defenders with a lovely pop pass that sent his midfield mate over unopposed for the sweetest of tries.
Now there was some daylight and, with the scrums increasingly one-sided, it was no surprise when England scored their fourth, Henry Pollock kicking ahead and Roebuck doing the rest. The Twickenham atmosphere continues to veer wildly in tone between traditional military band reserve and ear-splitting techno – this time we had a gospel choir singing Jerusalem immediately followed by a blast of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes – but when England are on the up it is a serious amphitheatre. The roar of pent-up joy at the final whistle said it all.
