New Zealand vs England 6th July Dunedin

First topic message reminder :

England (Copied from Poorfour's post)
Furbank
Feyi-Waboso
Slade
Lawrence
Freeman
Smith M
Mitchell

Marler
George
Stuart
Itoje
Martin
CCS
Underhill
Earl

Replacements
Dan
Baxter
Cole
Coles
Curry
Spencer
Smith F
Sleightholme

The match is under cover, at the Forsyth Barr stadium

Kick off is 7:05pm local time and 8:05am UK time.

The build-up has been very low-key. While both Tests are expected to sell out, the NZRU says around 800 tickets are still available for Saturday. Official capacity for the Forsyth Barr is 30,748. Pushed to name England players, most New Zealand supporters would struggle to come up with more than Tuilagi, Farrell, Vunipola and Lawes, who have all gone. Some might remember Ford's World Cup masterclass against Argentina, and he's not on tour either.

Marcus Smith does get coverage. When Wigglesworth appeared on "The Breakdown" yesterday, Jeff Wilson remembered how he changed the game against New Zealand at Twickenham. Aside from him, though there's not a lot of awareness, and most probably don't know that Jamie George is captain.

The real focus in NZ has been on Scott Robertson, and what he might bring to the table. "The Breakdown" says the All Blacks have fourteen tests this year, including away fixtures against South Africa, Ireland, France and England. While no New Zealander wants to countenance losing any matches, Mils Muliaina suggested he might be satisfied with just 9 wins across the season.

Bit of a frantic start to the game! Could be a lively one.

ABs shift in intensity and get the try. Powerful carries keeping the ball alive and great cross field by McKenzie. All Blacks in full flow!

Well worked try by NZ.

Despite the parity in penalties, I think NZ are a bit nervy in the scrum - they’re trying all the tricks to get an edge, and were lucky with their penalty that de Groot wasn’t pinged for standing up. Baxter has just trotted on as I was typing this. Be interesting to see how he copes.

Neither side looks settled.

A better attack from England, followed by a great response to the dropout. I disagree with the commentators - a 5m lineout is a good reward.

As is the try that followed.

England fire back! Clever decisions made by Lawrence and Mitchell putting the pressure on the ABs

Great game so far - pretty frantic with both teams still not fully settling into their rhythm.

I think England might be adopting a tactic that Quins have been using to good effect.

Smith has been kicking near the opposition 22 early in games, often to no immediate benefit - but by establishing that picture it makes it harder for the defence to settle and creates opportunities later in the game.

England are in this game, but they’ve got to cut out the mistakes. Errors in midfield have cost them dearly.

Incredible goose-step from Perofeta and another ABs try. Can England keep up?

McKenzie missing both kicks will help their case.

Great kick off chase undone by a horrid decision to kick

Two errors by NZ give England a let off.

Baxter stabilises the scrum, but England give a soft turnover at the breakdown. They can’t afford these lapses.

But then neither can NZ - a neck roll in an attacking position is a huge let-off for England.

Absolutely brutal rucking intensity from ABs (neck roll aside). Generating fast ball with a small invest me of players on the ruck.

England doing well to keep in the fight. Still anyone's game.

Poorfour wrote:Baxter stabilises the scrum, but England give a soft turnover at the breakdown. They can’t afford these lapses.

But then neither can NZ - a neck roll in an attacking position is a huge let-off for England.

Baxter did well on his second scrum. He got stuffed on the first but adapted well.

And England make the same neck roll mistake. Pretty harsh call on replay, though.

Amushikeli is right on replay - he’d raised the arm before England got possession

New Zealand overplay and England have a chance to go in level

Not sure what the ABs were playing at aimlessly throwing the ball around with time in the red in their own half. Needless loss of 3 points.

England will probably be the happier team given they've been on the ropes but are going in level.

Amushikeli is a very good ref doing a very good job. Really has helped the game flow.

England defence is looking good. Attack is lacking patience and is where we are missing Ford. We are to quick to drop it onto the boot, need to go through a few more phases so that the Kiwi defence isn't so aligned. Slade and Smith have both grubbered away good attacking ball that NZ have dealt with under little pressure. Need to be a bit sharper and more clinical all round.

Good test match though.

Seems exactly like a first run out for both sides. But the intensity from both sides way up there. Second half should be a corker.

Interesting punditry strategy of having three former Quins in the studio.

Poorfour wrote:Interesting punditry strategy of having three former Quins in the studio.

I've got the Kiwi stream and they are praising the England defence heavily.

When the ref says “Use it”, use it.

ABs lacking test match smarts before and after halftime. Firstly fannying about with the ball before halftime then Christie not using the ball from the scrum when the ref was calling for it.

Poorfour wrote:When the ref says “Use it”, use it.

Got to listen to the referee. It's not like he wasn't clear.

Marcus Smith missing a other very kickable penalty. It's just not good enough you only get so many opportunities away on New Zealand.

Furbank is picking some great lines off Smith, but left to his own devices he’s running back into contact.

Slade has looked a bit uncertain on his feet ball in hand.

A couple of clever little passes and England nearly mess it up on the tryline, but Earl’s strength and Smith’s awareness see it over the line.

I see New Zealand have deployed their Obligatory Tuipolotu.

Big defensive set for England now. Which they complete in two phases. NZ are surprisingly profligate in the red zone.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Marcus Smith missing a other very kickable penalty. It's just not good enough you only get so many opportunities away on New Zealand.

7 extra points for England right now would be very handy for them

NZ get another marginal penalty. Opting to kick it is unusual at this stage of the game.

RDW wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Marcus Smith missing a other very kickable penalty. It's just not good enough you only get so many opportunities away on New Zealand.

7 extra points for England right now would be very handy for them

To be fair the missed conversion was a bit tough. The two pens though would make it a 21-10 game. Very different.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

RDW wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Marcus Smith missing a other very kickable penalty. It's just not good enough you only get so many opportunities away on New Zealand.

7 extra points for England right now would be very handy for them

To be fair the missed conversion was a bit tough. The two pens though would make it a 21-10 game. Very different.

Would they have got the try without the missed penalty, though?

A couple of breakdown penalties in succession, but Itoje is bossing the lineout and Smith’s kick earns good field position.

I think England were in danger of giving control of the game to NZ, but this is a chance to stabilise. Hope Baxter is OK; it’d be tough to finish this game without a full front row.

A bit over enthusiastic from Earl there.

We need to get into NZ territory and just go through some phases. Settle ourselves down and exert some pressure.

Come on sir, that was blatantly in from the side.

Awful pass from Spencer but again Smith showing no patience and in the pocket from a long way out. Dummies and just chips the ball away. Send the forwards in and reset.

England seem to have an edge in the set piece at the moment, but still conceding too many turnovers.

Clever placement of the ball to win that penalty. Play it back rather than forward and it’s playable.

Who’d have had this as a low-scoring 1 point game at 65 minutes?

Theo Dan is trying to do too much himself - England have done better moving the point of attack rather than trying to break the line directly.

NZ blatantly playing the ball on the floor there. Amushikeli has mostly been good but he’s missed a couple of very obvious things.

Fin Smith bringing some composure straight off the bench.

Spencer craps the bed at the back of the maul. He's really not an international scrum half.

NZ let England off again.

England’s kick chase has deteriorated in the second half. Could well cost them.

Spencer. meh.

Drama! McKenzie does a Faz and lets the shot clock run out.

Brave defence from England undone by a brainless no arms tackle.

But penalty not taken in time! Why is there no shot clock anymore? No warning from the ref either?

RDW wrote:Brave defence from England undone by a brainless no arms tackle.

But penalty not taken in time! Why is there no shot clock anymore?

There was: it was clearly there in the bottom left of the screen behind the posts.

The All Blacks get a pen to end the game but England will know they could have won that. I think next week will be close as well.

Poorfour wrote:

RDW wrote:Brave defence from England undone by a brainless no arms tackle.

But penalty not taken in time! Why is there no shot clock anymore?

There was: it was clearly there in the bottom left of the screen behind the posts.

The All Blacks get a pen to end the game but England will know they could have won that. I think next week will be close as well.

The game was right there. Jeez, Furbank realised it was not on and tried to take it up field. But Slade had to to realise they were on a two-on-four and go support the runner rather than running wider. That was just not thinking. And it possibly/potentially cost a test match.

Fun test match albeit a bit scrappy, which is no surprise. NZ really tightening things up in the 2nd half after a loose first half. 16-15 probably a fair result - ABs had a lot of ball and attacking opportunities, mostly foiled by brave English defence. England on the other hand were brave but lacked much in the attack beyond their tries. It's all fair and well doing the clever attacking grubbers or chips but at some point you've got to back yourself to score.

ABs were too loose - one of the pundits rightly said at HT they were playing it like a Super Rugby match. Important first win for Robertson though.

England could have won that! Smith's bad penalty miss the difference in the end.