The All Blacks’ recent vulnerabilities have come back to haunt them at Twickenham this morning, England scoring 25 unanswered points to deservedly win 33-19.
It will be a painful defeat for Scott Robertson’s men, and not only because it was the first for New Zealand in south west London since 2012 and their first to their rivals since their World Cup semifinal loss in 2019.
All Blacks fail to score 'grand slam' with 33-19 loss to England - Watch on TVNZ+
Their inability to make the most of their 12-0 first-half lead destroyed their hopes of a first Grand Slam since 2010 and it came in a most familiar way - a failure to hit back or stay in a match when momentum is going against them.
Rocked by the late withdrawal through illness of lock Fabian Holland, the All Blacks nevertheless performed extremely well in the set piece and stole three of England’s lineouts in the first half.
The visitors also played with greater discipline during that period, giving up no penalties to their opponents’ three.
But, once England, who are far from a complete team but played with a far greater sense of purpose and desire than the All Blacks, responded to the early tries from Leicester Fainga’anuku and Codie Taylor there was a sense of inevitability about the result.
First, centre Ollie Lawrence powered through Leroy Carter’s attempted tackle and then first-five George Ford’s two dropped goals just before halftime almost gave the home side parity.
The All Blacks had been hampered by two bad misses for touch by first-five Beauden Barrett, the No.10 attempting to find too much ground from penalties and kicking both dead and there were two more blows after halftime.
Halfback Cam Roigard’s ankle injury withdrew one of the All Blacks’ best attacking weapons, and Codie Taylor was sinbinned on the advice of the television match official for knocking the ball out of Marcus Smith’s hands in a tackle. It was a marginal call at best given Taylor was unsighted and similar incidents happen throughout any match.
It’s here that England, roared on by a capacity crowd of 82,000, came into their own and took advantage of an area of weakness of this All Blacks’ team – their third quarter malaise.
Converted tries from loose forward Sam Underhill and second-five Fraser Dingwall put England 25-12 up and, like they were against Scotland last weekend, the All Blacks appeared unable to get a foothold in the match – not helped, it must be said, by a passive performance from No.10 Barrett, who was replaced by Damian McKenzie after 55 minutes.
It later transpired that Barrett was carrying a leg injury.
A yellow card for England No.8 Ben Earl for collapsing an attacking maul gave the All Blacks a renewed impetus and they cashed in via Will Jordan, the fullback collecting McKenzie’s short pass and going over for his 45th Test try.
A Ford penalty with five minutes remaining pushed England’s advantage back out to nine points.
From the kick-off, the All Blacks went through the motions with little direction or purpose. Almost inevitably, the ball went loose from a breakdown and wing Tom Roebuck went through to score a try in the right corner which added insult to injury.
The incident summed up the Test, as did one earlier when the All Blacks, having won a penalty in front of the posts with 22 minutes remaining and the score 25-12, tapped the ball and made slight inroads only for McKenzie, their hero last weekend, to drop it.
With one Test to go for the year – against Wales in Cardiff – the tour will be seen as a failure by the All Blacks given it did not reap the ultimate prize of a Grand Slam.
The All Blacks' backline leaders, including Barrett and a reshuffled midfield of Quinn Tupaea and Billy Proctor, should come under scrutiny for their failure to unlock the English defence and a kicking game that was again second-best, but the pack should too, because their big men could not make enough inroads through or around the breakdown.
And while England thoroughly deserved their victory, there will be a sour taste at losing to them at their home in front of a crowd that fully expects a win no matter how they are playing. In this case, the All Blacks were nowhere near good enough.
England 33 (Ollie Lawrence, Sam Underhill, Fraser Dingwall, Tom Roebuck tries; George Ford 2 dropped goals, 2 cons, pen.)
All Blacks 19 (Leicester Fainga’anuku, Codie Taylor, Will Jordan tries; Beauden Barrett con, Damian McKenzie con.)
Halftime: All Blacks 12-11
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