All Blacks shade titanic contest

New Zealand beat England 23-19 in a monumental struggle at Twickenham, but the All Blacks were forced to hang on desperately in the closing stages to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive.

International Match, Saturday November 19

New Zealand beat England 23-19 in a monumental struggle at Twickenham, but the All Blacks were forced to hang on desperately in the closing stages to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive.

The All Blacks had three men sin-binned in the second half, but despite a one man advantage for all of 23 minutes, England's backs lacked the creativity to break through the New Zealand defence.

The England forwards - as expected - were magnificent and the entire team fought feverishly to impose their will on the world number ones. But without a cutting edge behind the scrum, all that effort ultimately came to nothing.

England needed a fast start and got one when Matt Dawson charged down a Byron Kelleher clearance close to the All Blacks line and Dan Carter was penalised for deliberately throwing the ball out.

Martin Corry decided against an early kick at goal, putting the ball into the corner and a catch and drive gave the skipper the reward of a try in the fourth minute.

It was so simple as to be almost shocking, but unfortunately for England fans it was not the shape of things to come.

New Zealand's forwards did not buckle against the much-vaunted England pack and in fact had the better of the first half, winning two England lineouts and losing none of their own.

But it is in the backs where the All Blacks expect to win matches and despite a couple of early, nervy knock-ons, they quickly found their awesome rhythm.

Inevitably it was the mercurial Carter who set up the equalising score, gliding through the England defensive line from a scrum and offloading in the tackle for his skipper Tana Umaga to trot over.

Hodgson quickly put England ahead again on 17 minutes when Umaga was penalised for not releasing the ball, but three minutes later Carter replied after Lewis Moody handled in the ruck.

New Zealand should have got their second try two minutes later when England lost their own scrum, Keller broke and Umaga charged for the line. He should have gone for the score himself, but offloaded to Chris Masoe and Richie McCaw's stand-in dropped the ball under pressure from Dawson.

Carter did put New Zealand ahead when Corry was penalised for coming in from the side and although England had plenty of posession in the closing stages of the half, there was simply no cutting edge behind the scrum.

Far too often the passes were slightly behind their target and the All Blacks wasted no time in rushing up and smothering any hint of danger.

Pat Sanderson made the only linebreak of the half for England but Ben Cohen was swallowed up by the defence and the half ended on a disappointing note when Hodgson missed a straightforward penalty chance.

Two minutes into the second half Carter missed an even easier chance, but the fly-half redeemed himself straight from the restart, a wonderful drop of the shoulder bamboozling the England defence. When the attack was halted inches from the England line, Keven Mealamu drove over to score.

Tony Woodcock was penalised for a late hit on Hodgson and the Sale fly-half cut the deficit to 20-13, only for Carter to stretch the lead again after England were penalised for going over the top.

New Zealand appeared to be establishing some sort of hard-fought hold on the game, but once Woodcock was yellow-carded for pulling down a rolling maul on 55 minutes, the rest of the match was virtually England attack versus New Zealand defence.

By this stage England's forward dominance was almost total. Time and again the ball was flung out wide but the backs simply could not break through.

Neemia Tialata and Masoe were sent to the bin for professional fouls and Hodgson slotted a couple of penalties, but still the defence held.

The final move of the match summed up the previous 25 minutes. With Twickenham at fever pitch, England won a scrum 15 metres out as time expired. The ball was sent through four pairs of hands to Cohen on the wing and inevitably he was swallowed up by the defence and forced into touch.

The New Zealand celebrations at the final whistle told their own story. As for England, they played magnificently in every facet of the game except the most important - tryscoring. This was a wasted opportunity to inflict a rare defeat on this mighty All Blacks team.