Key events
29 mins. A difficult period for England with lots of defending to do. The latest possession has Telea running a diagonal line off his left wing and brushing off three successive tackles to set up a good central platform in the English half. But the hands are imprecise from the All Blacks and they knock-on.
England wipe their brows.
TRY! New Zealand 10 – 7 England (Ardie Savea)
24 mins. Steve Borthwick is going to be incandescent with rage about this try. England make a total mess of the restart which gives possession to NZ, Ben Earl then misses a tackle on Perofeta which allows the fullback to feed Savea to run in up the right touchline and score.
Good opportunism from the All Blacks, but that was poor all round from England.
McKenzie can’t convert it.
TRY! New Zealand 5 – 7 England (Maro Itoje)
20 mins. Simple lineout drill from England has Cunningham-South smashing up to the line for a pop pass. He’s held just short, but the next phase has Itoje crashing over from short.
The ref awards it on the field, but wants the TMO to have a quick look who quickly confirms all is good. Try confirmed!
Smith converts to put the top hat on a very good response from the visitors to going behind.
19 mins. England are not too punchdrunk from that NZ pummelling possession and are immediately back on the attack up the right. Mitchell has a dart from the base of the ruck to make a good 20 metres before the ball is recycled and a kick has McKenzie taking it into touch close to the line.
Joe Marler is replaced by Fin Baxter. Have to assume that’s an injury.
TRY! New Zealand 5 – 0 England (Sevu Reece)
16 mins. Inevitably the All Blacks finally get some phased possession and it starts to cause some problems for England. The visitors are offside in defence twice during the attack, and while advantage is being played McKenzie co-ordinates some more attacking moves then creams a cross-kick to Reece who finishes handily in the right corner despite the attention of a Freeman tackle.
McKenzie misses the conversion from out wide.
13 mins. The All Blacks are into the 22, but a fumble under pressure halts the attack before they are pinged for early engagement at the next scrum. Smith can relieve a bit of pressure with a kick to touch, but NZ will soon be back on the ball.
10 mins. A tricky couple of minutes for England. Firstly, a terrible miscommunication at their lineout has the ball going to thin air while also not being straight – other than tha it was fine. Then on the following scrum a pen is awarded to NZ as De Groot puts a lot of pressure on Will Stuart.
8 mins. NZ are a little ponderous moving the ball from the ruck and that plays into the onrushing hands of England’s Felix Jones drilled defensive system. Henry Slade blitzes out to hurry Jordie Barrett into a fumble and Feyi-Waboso is about to snaffle it but therewas a tiny knock-on in there. The All Blacks boot it to touch from the scrum
MISSED PENALTY! New Zealand 0 – 0 England (Marcus Smith)
5 mins. The first scrum of the match is an NZ one on their 10m line. It hits the ground quick and the ref blows hard on his whistle to penalise Tyrel Lomax for collapsing. Fair call as well.
Smith calls for the tee and pulls it just left. It wasn’t a gimme, but he still should be slotting those.
2 mins. Alex Mitchell wastes no time in booting the ball back from the kick-off and manage to nick possession on halfway as the All Blacks run it. The visitors go wide early but a terrible pass is fired high above Freeman’s head and it squirts through his hands. Finau tries to capitalise on the spilled possession but Marcus Smith covers and puts him in touch.
KICK OFF!
Enough of the chit-chat, Damian McKenzie whomps the ball deep and the game is underway.
“What is England’s response to the Haka ?” asks Peter Barker.
Still and staring, mostly, Peter.
HAKA TIME!
TJ Perenara leads the All Blacks in the pre-game challenge.
It gets stick from some (miserable sod) quarters, but the Haka remains one of the best spectacles in top level sport and I’ll hear no more about it.
The teams are out on the field and are linking arms for the anthems.
The organisers have gone for the ‘led by a singer’ approach, with the NZ singer being a teenage girl who gives it a full belt, including falsetto and massive vibrato to finish. The absolute works, good for you, lass!
Morning @bloodandmud. This should be fascinating. I think England are making good steps, and Saints are a big part of this, so I’m really glad to see Sleighthome on the bench today. We have a chance, but despite big changes, this is the ABs at home. So it’s hope over expectation.
— Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) July 6, 2024
My view is that this should be a very good game, which says a lot about how evenly matched the teams feel coming in. However, the Robertson factor could have a huge impact for NZ.
It’s been 10 years since the sides faced each other in NZ, and the last match of that tour was a narrow 28-27 win for the All Blacks in today’s venue.
Pre-match reading
I posed some questions in the preamble earlier and I’d be interested to know what queries you would like resolved in the match?
You can email me to death with them or do the formerly twitter thing.
Teams
Scott Robertson had booted the door down, strutted in and announced his arrival by making some big calls. Beauden Barrett is benched in favour of Stephen Perofota at fullback, while his brother Scott – a man who is never more than few seconds from flirting with a card – is named captain. Richie Mo’unga is out, which ushers in a full run at 10 for the mercurial Damian McKenzie.
Steve Borthwick has decided that small evolutions is the way of progress. His England team is largely the same as that which grew in strength in March, but there is a start for Harlequins’ impressive Chandler Cunningham-South at blindside. Marcus Smith replaces the injured George Ford at stand-off. Northampton youngster Ollie Sleightholme will make an appearance from the bench where he has the returning Tom Curry for company.
New Zealand: 15 Stephen Perofeta, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Tele’a, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Dalton Papali’i, 6 Samipeni Finau, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Luke Jacobson, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Beauden Barrett
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George-captain, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Coles, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Tom Curry, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Ollie Sleightholme
Preamble
Welcome to Dunedin where New Zealand and England kick off their two-Test series; a brace of matches that will answer some questions for both sides. Among them are: is England’s improvement since the Calcutta Cup loss built on solid foundations? Are the All Blacks under their new coach able to shake off the feeling of underachievement that haunted the previous regime? And will Scott Robertson still do that stupid sodding breakdancing if they win, even at international level?
You can prove anything with facts, they say. And it’s a fact that since Martin Johnson led that heroic rearguard victory in 2003 England haven’t won in Aotearoa, which emphasises the presenting task for Steve Borthwick’s charges today. Even with a transitioning NZ squad to face, a victory here is remains rare as a 2024 “red wall” Conservative.
It’s also a fact – albeit a hard one to believe – that England haven’t come ashore in New Zealand since 2014, this being their first trip here for a decade. This is new territory for all of the visiting squad, while no one in the home 23 have faced today’s opponents on such familiar soil either.
Much uncertainty to ponder as we wait for kick off.
