A blistering start from the All Blacks, including two tries in the first 20 minutes, raised fears of an England drubbing as New Zealand sought revenge after suffering their only defeat of 2012 at Twickenham 12 months ago.
But the hosts fought their way back from 17-3 down to lead 22-20 before a late rally from the All Blacks saw them secure their 13th win of the year.
New Zealand will be left counting the cost of the victory, however, as Dan Carter’s 100th Test appearance came to a premature end as he was forced to limp off the field in the first half, while neither Tony Woodcock nor Owen Franks re-emerged from the dressing room after half-time.
England, too, suffered their own injury worries with Dylan Hartley going off for a concussion test and Owen Farrell limping off, both in the second half.
But while England have now completed their last match of the year, New Zealand set off for Dublin to face Ireland as they look to become the first team to go undefeated in a calendar year.
New Zealand got themselves on the scoreboard within two minutes with a moment of sheer brilliance from player of the year Kieran Read. The towering number eight drew Chris Ashton, Billy Vunipola and Lee Dickson out of position before offloading to Julian Savea to run through the resulting gap for the try.
Carter added the conversion and, although England got off the mark through a Farrell penalty five minutes later, then added a conversion before Read added a try of his own on 17 minutes.
If the first try was all about a brilliance from Read, the second was the best of the All Blacks working as a team. Almost every pair of hands was involved before Israel Dagg found Read outside him, the number eight skipping past Ben Foden’s tackle to touch down.
England hit back immediately from the re-start though, Woodcock conceding a penalty before Chris Robshaw and Farrell decided to kick for the corner instead of taking the points.
Credit should go to England for their determination throughout the afternoon, but none more so than mid-way through the first half as they looked to stop the rampant All Blacks attack.
It took the hosts three attempts before they could force their way over the line for their only try of the afternoon, Farrell going back to the corner each time rather than changing tack and opting for the penalty kick.
Eventually it paid off, however, as Joe Launchberry picked up a loose ball and dived over the line, just ahead of skipper Robshaw who certainly would’ve seen his score disallowed for offside.
Farrell added the extras before exchanging penalties with Aaron Cruden, England’s score coming after New Zealand had been reduced to 14 men by the sin-binning of Read.
The hosts further reduced the deficit, with another Farrell kick, heading into the interval before also scoring the first points of the second half, with two more penalties, to take the lead.
But New Zealand weathered the storm and did what they did best, putting late points on the board to deny England another famous win.
Savea scored his second try of the afternoon after a sublime one-handed off-load from Ma’a Nonu, before Cruden both converted and added another three points and New Zealand ran down the clock for the last eight minutes.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/24937402
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