Phenomenal: Manu Tuilagi
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Delirium was the order of the day on Saturday at Twickenham as England defeated New Zealand 38-21 with three second-half tries.
New Zealand responded to a 15-0 defecit with scores from Julian Savea and Kieran Read, before England took charge thanks to three of their own from Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and Manu Tuilagi in an astonishing second-half performance.
Owen Farrell endured a tumultuous week with being named as one of the best four players in the world, as if the pressure coming for England's most-capped player in Toby Flood wasn't enough. But the young Saracen flourished, showing great poise with the boot as he continued to tally up the points and steered England during the first half.
The All Blacks had been struck down by a vomiting bug during the week and despite Richie McCaw's claim that it would not affect them at Twickenham, New Zealand did not look themselves at all during the first 50 minutes as they were denied possession.
Julian Savea's try changed all of that; stepping his way through three England defenders in the left-hand corner to breathe life into the All Blacks. They flicked the switch and thundered forward from the re-start, sticking to their principles of running rugby and exploiting gaps that they left untouched in the first half.
England though were not simply going to fall down on their knees. Instead they roared back, thumping the All Blacks as the second half wore on. The rarest of breaks from Brad Barritt had the crowd roaring and a one-two with centre partner Tuilagi led to the hosts' first try.
Tuilagi then skipped through a tackle from Dan Carter to burst free, feeding Ashton who sprinted over for the second try. A Tuilagi interception then sealed the match, cruising home and slowing down as he neared the line as if he couldn't believe his luck. England were like a new team - the All Blacks were exhausted.
Whilst Carter missed two shots at goal in the first half, his fellow IRB Player of the Year nominee Farrell was accurate - knocking over two first-half penalties to give England a surprising 6-0 lead to the delight of the home crowd.
An overthrown lineout from Keven Mealamu resulted in another English driving maul before Tuilagi burst into the 22 and with the advantage being played, Farrell dropped back and stretched England's lead to nine.
Another infringement with seconds remaining left Farrell with another chance to strike before half-time, landing the 48 metre kick to leave the score at 12-0. Twickenham had never been more pleasantly surprised.
The run continued after the break with England winning a penalty at the scrum, Farrell again converting to leave New Zealand more than two converted tries behind the hosts.
Those tries duly arrived in two explosive bangs in the left-hand corner; the first coming from Savea then the second coming as the conclusion to some wonderful passing that left Read galloping into the corner before England scorched away. Savea responded with a try with only five minutes left but it was not enough as the All Blacks lost for the first time in 2012.
Man of the match: Two assists and one crucial interception try from Manu Tuilagi make him the player of the day.
Moment of the match: With New Zealand edging back into the match, Brad Barritt's score swung the momentum back in England's favour.
Villain of the match: The mystery bug that struck New Zealand earlier in the week. McCaw might have denied it would have an effect, but the All Blacks looked exhausted.
The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Barritt, Ashton, Tuilagi
Con: Farrell
Pens: Farrell (5), Burns
Yellow Card: Vunipola
For New Zealand:
Tries: Savea (2), Read
Cons: Carter (2), Cruden
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Courtney Lawes 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Liam Messam, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumunia, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Victor Vito, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Ben Smith.
by Ben Coles
@bencoles_
Comments
Oceansnz says...
@ All ENGLAND Supporters
A hat or two should be taken off for Stuart Lancaster. I'm certain his tactic of England players working in twos (one player tackles, the other goes straight for the ball) won if for them.
They gained a lot penalties from this, turnovers and created pressure + momentum. A good England team, but the coaching team deserves much of the credit in my book.
Posted 03:37 02nd December 2012
theGadflY says...
a vry entrtainin game.congrts to England,they were da bettr team,no doubt.they were very unlucky to lose against Aus & SA.good to see them play an expansive game which is very unEngland like.hope they'l continue with this brand of rugby.some very exciting young talents in that team.
Posted 02:43 02nd December 2012
passtheball says...
Cant remember a better England performance against NZ. Even 2003 was a slug-fest by comparison. Cant think of an area that ABs were even level with Eng.
For the ABs - some of us said they looked tired against Wales but I think the most draining part of the build up was not the virus but the Andrew Hore incident and the press coverage. Like the Keith Murdock incident, long ago, it will take a long while work through.
Posted 02:39 02nd December 2012
Ramage says...
Well all one can do is congratulate England for the way they played and the way the did it. To me it was the way the English opened up the Blacks in the second half. Right up until NZ scored their 14 points I was feeling ok. Not too happy as the NZers were lethargic and not playing well and the English were ripping into them, especially in the forwards. However it was still only kicks that were keeping them ahead. In that period after NZ scored those points England played the way I have been saying that teams who want to beat NZ need to play. To be quite honest I didnt think they had it in them and they have come out and proved me wrong. Now the challenge is to keep doing it. So congratulations to England you won the game and did it by playing the entertaining rugby we enjoy.
As for the fans I don't begrudge your day in the sun and expect you to make the most of it and to most of the fans on here its your time to enjoy because your team played some amazing rugby.
As usual there are always those who cant help themselves with their comments but the fair mindred "poms" have dealt with those people so I'll leave it at that.
England have proved something to themselves and if this is the way they are going to play can offer much to world rugby. NZ, well I'm not here to offer excuses no doubt the team will analyse itself and go away and work on any problems. I just hope the weakesses that are apparent in the coaching panel are looked at as well. Someone earlier made a comment about selections and we must go on to look at building the younger replacements as we can't rely on the stalwarts all the time. It was fairly obvious Carter, for what ever reason, was well below par and should not have playe. Whilst saying that, it was the forwards who were outgunned and below par as well. I recognise how well the English stepped up and outplayed the Blacks for a well deserved win.
Posted 02:16 02nd December 2012
LondonWasp says...
i should point out that the english ladyfolk also got a good result today too
23 Nov: England 16-13 New Zealand
27 Nov: England 17-8 New Zealand
1 Dec: England 32-23 New Zealand
Even though I am incredibly happy we won, I don't think the mens team could beat AB three times in a row.....
Still; congrats to a pleasently unexpected result!
Posted 01:20 02nd December 2012
rugby_phile says...
No ifs, buts or anything else. Today the ABs got done by a far superior team on the day. An unreserved well played to England.
@Rose Tiger, I know you type mate, went there for a "bird" indeed. You amazing intellectual couldn't even call her an ex partner, or a woman, or even a girl, lucky girl she is. Met your wingeing pom type before (the tomato sauce doesn't taste right, the beer is too fizzy and cold, and ,and). I bet you like to dish it out but can't take it. How am I doing so far.
The only thing that makes you sufferable, is that for every one like you I have met in NZ, I have also met another 20 really great Englishmen, some of whom I class as my best lifelong friends, and trust me I am choosy about my friends. Good riddance.
Anyway moron, this is rugger blog, see what you made me do? Arrrrggghhhhh.
Posted 01:16 02nd December 2012
georgesmith says...
Finally the Abs have been put in place with a thrashing. The English deserved it. Great result for the game. Also good performance by the man in the middle, who was the real hero for punishing the cheaters.
Posted 01:03 02nd December 2012
StunTheMullet says...
Guess we need to let the White Knights get one once a decade so they can tell us about for the next one!
Looks like Madge, Suzie's daughter on her OE, and the Kangaroo Courts finally caught up with them.
Posted 00:49 02nd December 2012
atg77 says...
Those New Zealand players must have been really sick... there's no question it affected their performance.
Posted 00:20 02nd December 2012
nzmaoriboy says...
Personally if we are gonna loose to a team,You want it to be a team that thoroughly deserves it (ahh my pride) haha & take note Trollers you will taken more seriously if you are more objective and constructive about the game we love..This is how positive rugby should be acknowledged! from New Zealand Herald (our most popular paper)..
"I would just like to congratulate England on a tremendous performance," said All Black coach Steve Hansen.
"They thoroughly enjoyed their victory today and they should be very proud of what they achieved. They played some magnificent football. At 15-14 we certainly asked questions of them and they responded as a good team. We don't have an excuse - we just got beaten by a better side on the day"
Posted 00:19 02nd December 2012
startledwombat says...
I've just now read five pages of thread to get viewers' perspectives on the game. The story so far:
English fans about their team - excited, delighted, happy
New Zealand fans - surprised, impressed, congratulatory
Fans of the Game Made in Heaven - happy at a really good game
Others - expecting the NZ fans to be bitter (wrong call, guys)and pre-empting by being bitter first.
Posted 00:16 02nd December 2012
hayj05 says...
Disappointed in our guys but can't take anything away from England, great win.
Congrats to the players & enjoy English fans!
Posted 00:14 02nd December 2012
startledwombat says...
I've relied for my information on this match from PR's own Livescoring and a phone call to New Zealand relatives. The report from Christchurch is -
Justin Marshall summed it up well when he commented that most teams have played a kicking game against the All Blacks but the English kept attacking through a ball-in-hand passing game. Nullified the NZ back three. Clever!
Excellent skills and ferocity from England. The multiples-of-3 approach to scoring has gone. They look innovative. The passing skills are exceptional .
The English approach to the ruck tackle thing was also praised - committing two players to the tackle, one to tackle and release, the other to secure possession, all timed to avoid infringements.
Richie McCaw said something like "that's why we play sport. Because we don't know who the winner is until we play the game." Fair enough too.
So there's no upset Kiwis among the people I know, just admiration for a terrific game from England. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the game and watching it.
Posted 23:55 01st December 2012
Kiwikev says...
Congrats to England; well played and well deserved victory....
Posted 23:54 01st December 2012
Heathy says...
For the ones that didn't understand my post, it may be easier to explain if you looked back to the preview of the game. On this feed there are a lot of positive comments and ones that are in perspective from kiwi fans and other alike. That's good to see. However, on the preview posts there were a lot of derogatory comments that were not only stupid but insulting to the English. They virtually all came from the SH posters. Jonesy2 and bokbebok were to name a couple amongst quite a few. In fairness bokbebok has posted on here and congratulated. Others have disappeared (shock). That's all. It was a great England performance, best for a while. Are we now world beaters. Absolutely not as we still have a long way to go. If we played NZ another 9 more times we would probably lose them all. However, lets be positive and enjoy this one for now. Well played boys and shows what we are capable of.
Posted 23:41 01st December 2012
Kneegrow says...
@ poffadder: "80+% win record for the season ain't exactly mediocre.": Dude, I was suggesting that England is a Mediocre team, but you suggest that they have a 80+% win ratio. Where do you get those Stats from ? Just this year, England have lost 5 games; won 6 and drawn 1. How is that 80% ? In fact they've won just 50% of their matches this year.
Posted 23:38 01st December 2012
foxrock says...
Well played England. Great overall performance. Except for that showboating prat Ashton. When will he grow up?
Posted 23:34 01st December 2012
Bambo says...
What a result. Well done England. I don't support England but I have to applaud any team that takes apart NZ so comprehensively. Wales!?!
NH looks as full of positives as it does negatives, as always.
France 3 - 0
England 2 - 2
Ireland 1 - 1
Wales 0 - 4
Scotland 0 - 3
Allez les bleus.
Anon.
Posted 23:33 01st December 2012
gazzabok says...
I guess we will be hearing about this for the next 15 years or so....
Posted 23:30 01st December 2012
rugbyforever says...
Ha, ha, ha, ha ha haaaa, Arrogant Blacks, ha, ha,ha, haaaaa, Always Bragging, ha, ha, ha, haaaaa, ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, haaaaa - now let's wait for all their excuses, ha, ha, ha, haaaaa
Posted 23:23 01st December 2012