England hang on for draw

England saw an 18-0 half-time lead evaporate in their tour opener against New Zealand Maori but hung on for a draw in Auckland.

An impressive opening 40 minutes from Steve McNamara's side saw Ryan Atkins, Sam Tomkins and Sean O'Loughlin cross with Gareth Widdop converting all three.

However, the Maori rattled the tiring tourists with three scores in the space of 15 second-half minutes and with 10 still on the clock the hosts pressed for the win.

But England held on thanks to some crucial steals and it was left to full-back Kevin Locke to level the scores with the boot two minutes from time.

There were early signs of rust, with Australian-based forwards Sam Burgess and Gareth Ellis producing uncharacteristic handling errors, and Ellis had an early try disallowed after Locke managed to dislodge the ball from his grasp as he went over the line.

Captain Adrian Morley went off after 12 minutes with an arm injury and it took England 20 minutes to open the scoring, offloads from Crabtree and Ellis creating the space for Sam Tomkins to get centre Atkins over for a well-worked try.

Easy score

Another audacious Crabtree offload enabled lively substitute Luke Robinson to get Tomkins racing away for a second try on 27 minutes and, with the final move of the first half, Robinson's pace off the mark created an easy score for loose forward O'Loughlin.

Widdop's three conversions made it 18-0 and the visitors looked set to continue in the same vein when Westwood was denied a try early in the second half by a double movement, before the Maori began their comeback.

Loose forward Bodene Thompson finished off a flowing move on 52 minutes and 10 minutes later hooker Aaron Heremaia collected a kick from Castleford half-back Rangi Chase to grab a second try, which was converted by Locke.

The lead was down to just two points eight minutes from the end when Chase's speculative kick from a scrum deep inside the Maori half caused all sorts of problems for Widdop and Taumata claimed a third try.

As England clung to their tenuous lead, Tom Briscoe and Robinson came up with crucial steals to keep the rampant Maori at bay but, when Ellis was pulled up for interference at the play-the-ball, Locke levelled the scores with a penalty.