NZ vs England

[Lamb of BOD]

http://www.epl424.org/index.php?p=1_37_SS1

Stream for the match, if anyone needs it

[fourthirtythree]

Cracking game.

[Lamb of BOD]

Cracking game.

Excellent from both sides - plenty of errors, but most of them forced. Makes for an entertaining game, some cracking attacking play, last gasp defence and the forwards on both sides have, to a man, put in massive efforts. With that yellow card, you can't help but feel that might be that for England

[Lamb of BOD]

Cipriani on. Will be interesting to see how he goes

[Lamb of BOD]

12-12. 7 to go. Whatever happens from here, to give massive credit to England. I don't know that many gave them a chance in this game, but they've played an excellent team game. NZ looked like they were going to cut loose, by were never given a chance. Robshaw, Morgan and the front row have been immense



EDIT: great finish by Conrad Smith. Surely the winner. England with the early charge of Cruiden's conversion attempt. Same ref as in Lansdowne, yet Cruiden not afforded a second chance at that one.

[artaneboy]

Yeah, good competitive game. Amazing how England can go there with what is a weakened team and do so well. If we (Ireland) played that English 15, we'd fancy our chances: but we just can't seem to do it against New Zeland- no matter how strong our team.

Thought Cipriani played well for his cameo- make a good break and kicked that peno under pressure. Brown was solid; Tuilagi fearsome going forward and the backs generally a bit callow, but decent. In the pack- great scrum- fantastic lineout work by Parling and co. Robshaw was ever willing and Morgn really carried well in the second half. On the debit side, I thought Haskell and (less blame-worthy) Wilson dropped a lot of ball, when England were in the ascendent. Youngs generally, and in particular in dropping that ball for Retallick to gather and run 60 metres, was poor.

England look good.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

[fourthirtythree]

12-12. 7 to go. Whatever happens from here, to give massive credit to England. I don't know that many gave them a chance in this game, but they've played an excellent team game. NZ looked like they were going to cut loose, by were never given a chance. Robshaw, Morgan and the front row have been immense



EDIT: great finish by Conrad Smith. Surely the winner. England with the early charge of Cruiden's conversion attempt. Same ref as in Lansdowne, yet Cruiden not afforded a second chance at that one.

Yeah, England are really building a great squad momentum there. Maybe a prop or two short. And if Tuilagi had hands he'd be fantastic. Dagg had a mare didn't he?

I don't think the conversion mattered in this one anyway.

[Donny B.]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

Didn't see the game but this is kind of a trend with Nigel.

[Vamos los azules]

Some tricky selection decisions for Lancaster next week after that performance from the second, third and fourth choices.

Personally I would probably only bring in Wood for Haskell and then use the other Saracens and Saints players to strengthen the bench a bit. It would be very harsh to drop the likes of Burns, Parling and Morgan in particular after their efforts today.

[SCG]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

Didn't see the game but this is kind of a trend with Nigel.

Have just watched it now and have to agree. What is it about Eden Park that gets to referees - as it did with Craig Joubert in the WC final? Of course the AB's are expert at living on the edge or just over it!

[simonokeeffe]

other than the yellow card issues I thought Owens was decent

England can blame themselves though, crucial turnover at end was a terrible play to a one out runner with no support and a backline lined up 20 yards back. Ball skills of English forwards in general really let them down, plus a lack of decent carrying in the pack; they repeatedly went backwards

[artaneboy]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

Didn't see the game but this is kind of a trend with Nigel.

Have just watched it now and have to agree. What is it about Eden Park that gets to referees - as it did with Craig Joubert in the WC final? Of course the AB's are expert at living on the edge or just over it!

Other than not yellow carding the ABs for holding on in the second half, I think Nigel had a good game.

[ichabodscrane]

I have to say I admire the poms courage. I know they lost, but that was largely a second team. It would have been easy for then to go to Eden Park and get a hiding and make excuses but they went out to match the All Blacks. I was impressed with Burns, Morgan Tuilagi & Eastmond. I wasn't overly impressed by the All Black scrum but Messam was immense. The second test should be a cracker , I think Tom Wood is a smashing player and alongside Robshaw & Vunipola it should make for a good match.

We could do with taking a leaf outta England's book when we go down to NZ. No Fear!

[sid]

We could do with taking a leaf outta England's book when we go down to NZ. No Fear!

Didn't we do the exact same thing in the first test the last time we toured there? What will be interesting to see is whether England can back it up in the next game.

[ichabodscrane]

Yeah Sid you're right we did, I suppose we suffered from bad refereeing that day (wheeling the scrum I think). What I meant was I was impressed by England attitude pre game and indeed during the game. England were down to 14 men when smith scored the try, I wonder if but for some unbalanced refereeing (surely NZ should have had a man sent off at their line) how the match could have ended. It was a thoroughly entertaining match though.

[Donny B.]

We could do with taking a leaf outta England's book when we go down to NZ. No Fear!

Didn't we do the exact same thing in the first test the last time we toured there? What will be interesting to see is whether England can back it up in the next game.

It was the second test that we ran them close. The first we were well beaten. The second we really should have won, or at least drawn. The third we were ripped to pieces.

[Logorrhea]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

Big time. I'm a fan of his, but I thought it was his worst performance as a ref. Got the key decisions wrong and at stages he only seemed to be reffing one team.

Having said all that, England didn't really create much.

[Dexter]

Nigel Owens had a massive influence on that result. Made some very harsh calls against England and let away NZ away with murder. Two definite yellow card offences against NZ that were ignored.

Big time. I'm a fan of his, but I thought it was his worst performance as a ref. Got the key decisions wrong and at stages he only seemed to be reffing one team.

Having said all that, England didn't really create much.

To be consistent he should have binned one of the NZ players when they were penalised on their own line. I don't think England would have scored a try with the extra man anyway, as you say they didn't create an awful lot. Would NZ have scored the try if England had 15 men? Possibly not.

Anyway, he's not the first ref to be lenient to NZ and he won't be the last. NZ looked more dangerous in general and deservedly edged the game IMO, although it was a great performance by England. Next week will be interesting.

[olaf the fat]

England were at 15 when the try was scored.

On the run back from the NZ incident on the line, Owens said something like " I know what you were trying, but you just got you timing wrong, otherwise it would have been a yellow card" to one of the NZ players. --

Yarde was clearly told stop but he continued to kill the ball.

But the ABs do always seem to get the 50/50 decisions