NO MERCY FROM ALL BLACKS

 

 

The last time England faced the All Blacks was actually earlier this year. Admittedly my attention would have been elsewhere, namely Euro 2008, but England did tour New Zealand earlier this year and their last match was at the Jade Stadium, where they were beaten 44-12. Nope, we certainly don't have a good record against the All Blacks, (maybe I should stop taking the mickey out of the haka) and for the last time we beat them you have to go back to another match on their turf except this time round Clive Woodward was the coach and we beat them 15-13 at the Westpac Trust before returning down under to win the '03 Rugby World Cup.

This time around we may have had a new coach in charge in Martin Johnson, the captain of the '03 side but despite a good result against the Pacific Islanders, results against the other big southern hemisphere names suggested that though there was some potential there(though not in Danny Cipriani), we certainly had a lot of work to do before we could be competitive at the 2011 RWC. So with Toby Flood as kicker, and Delon Armitage as the best of our new names, we welcomed the All Blacks to Twickenham, drowned out the kaka with a round of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and hoped. In the words of Father Ted it was a case of, "we won't beat them but we'll give it a go".

Credit where credit's due though, our defying the haka must have put the wind up the All Blacks before their early game was messy as hell, England could have gotten a try immediately but it was still the Kiwis that took the lead through a Daniel Carter pen, though Flood levelled soon after. Our biggest problem proved to be a run of indiscipline similar to what happened against the Aussies though, at one point we were down to 13 men due to fouls(though a nitpicky ref didn't hep either). Carter kicked a second pen before we went two men down and though his kicking was iffy and the All Blacks never looked like hitting top form, two more kicks meant that we were 12-3 down at half time.

Well we looked like we were going to catch the All Blacks completely on the hop in the early moments of the second half but in the end, we lost another guy to a yellow, though a long range Armitage pen helped matters a bit. Time still went on and we continued to soak up the visitors and the game remained in the balance untill a turnover gave Mils Muilana space to run though and made things look not so good. Carter then added another pen before setting up Muilana for a second try. Finally the All Blacks complete our destruction with a fast break try which let Sitiveni Sivivatu set up Ma'a Nonu, Carter converted, a four yellow later and NZ were 32-6 winners. The score was slightly flattering but the result was deserved, what Johnno does from here is uncertain.

Elsewhere, Wales faced Austrailia at the Millenium Stadium. Shane Williams opened with an early try for Wales only for the Aussies to turn things round with Matt Giteau convering a Mark Chisholm try before Giteau added a drop goal.. The Welsh then benefitted from a Stephen Jones pen and Jones then converted a Steven Byrne try, giving the Welsh the lead before half time. Giteau then pulled three back with a pen before Jones effectively sealed the win with a drop goal and penalty. Digby Ione got a late try for the Aussies but it was the Welsh that won the day, beating the Aussies 21-18 in what was a jawdropping result, where they got that from I'm not sure.

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