England go close but All Blacks have enough to take honours

ENGLAND may have rattled and rolled New Zealand at times in Dunedin yesterday, but it was still a case of so near, yet so far, for Steve Borthwick’s new-model side in a pulsating opening Test in which both teams scored two tries and the lead changed hands five times.

- NICK CAIN

Ultimately, however, it was New Zealand, who took the honours by a single point thanks to a Damian McKenzie penalty with 15 minutes left on the clock – and it could have been by a wider margin if the All Black fly-half had not allowed the shot-clock to run out as he lined up another penalty in front of the posts in the penultimate minute.

By the same token, if his England counterpart Marcus Smith had had his best kicking boots on, rather than leaving eight points out on the pitch, McKenzie’s last two efforts might have been academic – and a 21-year wait for a third win on New Zealand soil over.

The portents were in England’s favour going into this first Test, because, for once, they arrived in New Zealand well prepared and primed, with a successful warm-up game against Japan and three weeks of training – as opposed to the previous pattern of a fragmented, jet-lagged squad arriving in dribs and drabs in the aftermath of a Premiership final.

They are also two years into Borthwick’s tenure with six Tests under their belts since the 2023 World Cup. By contrast, New Zealand had a new coach in Scott Robertson, who faced his first Test in charge with a team which had not played a Test since losing the World Cup final to South Africa by a point eight months ago, and had only 10 days of preparation.

Yet, despite England’s much-improved blitz defence putting a python-like squeeze on new skipper Scott Barrett’s side, they had just enough to edge out the tourists. There was precious little in it, with both sides competing ferociously for every scrap of possession, and while England were predictably under pressure at the scrum, and came second in the breakdown battle, they had their fair share of gains.

Jamie George’s crew counter-punched strongly by making a mess of New Zealand’s lineout, and their press defence shaped by assistant coach Felix Jones forced the host nation into multiple errors, and denied them attacking space.