Cowan lifts All Blacks
England 6 New Zealand 19
Sunday November 22 2009
Could England have beaten New Zealand at Twickenham yesterday? It depended upon whether you are a lifelong believer in Father Christmas.
Granted, throughout the first half and, in fact, until the 57th minute, the dream survived. Alas, a simple twist of the screw in the final quarter took New Zealand comfortably clear to inflict another defeat by southern hemisphere opponents upon hapless England.
There was much in the first half to commend Martin Johnson's side. There was a sense of urgency and commitment that they failed to show against either Australia or Argentina. As England's Lewis Moody said afterwards, "Martin Johnson is the heart and soul of this team. He leads by his heart and his passion and that rubs off. It certainly did in the first 20 minutes, but I am gutted that we just couldn't get over that try-line. Then we started to make little unforced errors. But we will learn from this, we have to take confidence."
Alas, the crucial element early on was England were living on borrowed time. They had to make so many early tackles that they were draining away their own energy levels, like a car battery with the lights left on. It just had to tell and, eventually, it did.
Clear signs of that began to appear as New Zealand increasingly got more bodies to the breakdown, especially after half-time. Together with the set scrums, where England also struggled, these were the phases that eventually influenced the game.
New Zealand might have been several leagues below their best, but they still had enough tactical nous and power up front to survive England's spirited, yet ultimately flawed, performance.
England showed far greater urgency right from the start. Allied to that the fact that New Zealand struggled for most of the first half to get into second gear, and you get an indication of why the teams went into half-time level at 6-6.
At times, Dan Carter looked like a golfer struggling to break 80. He seemed hesitant in some key moments, mishandled more than once and missed two of four regulation penalty attempts in the first half alone. But, with Carter, you know he is always likely to find a moment of inspiration. His 46th-minute penalty edged the All Blacks 9-6 ahead, but then came the killer blow after 57 minutes.
The All Blacks forwards drove forward in a relentless series of surges, reaching the England 22 before they released it. The ball went down the blindside, Sitiveni Sivivatu ran hard and straight, Richie McCaw supported inside and scrum-half Jimmy Cowan was the extra man out wide to score the game's only try. Carter converted from touch and with a fourth penalty goal 10 minutes later, the misfiring out-half eased New Zealand out of sight.
Carter admitted it had been a pretty modest New Zealand display. "We were very happy to get the win because it's never easy at Twickenham. But we weren't there today with parts of our game. We definitely have to improve because France in Marseille next weekend will be our biggest challenge of this tour."
Scorers -- England: Wilkinson 2 pens. New Zealand: Cowan try; Carter 4 pens, con
England: M Cueto; M Banahan (M Tait 71), D Hipkiss, A Erinle (S Geraghty 62), U Monye; J Wilkinson, P Hodgson (D Care 69); T Payne (D Bell 64), D Hartley (S Thompson 49), D Bell (D Wilson 50), S Borthwick (capt), S Shaw (L Deacon 64), J Worsley (T Croft 2), L Moody, J Haskell
New Zealand: M Muliaina; Z Guildford, C Smith, M Nonu, S Sivivatu; D Carter, J Cowan (A Ellis 70); A Woodcock, A Hore, O Franks (J Afoa 58), B Thorn, T Donnelly (A Boric 58), A Thomson (J Kaino 59), R McCaw (capt), K Read
Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa)
- Peter Bills
Sunday Independent
