It was to be a battle between two sides long seen as perennial ‘understudies’ to the might of the Australian Kangaroos, but with new coaches at the helms of both sides- fans were hoping that both the pride of the English Lions and the tenacity of the New Zealand Kiwis would be lifted in the tri-series opener.
England New Zealand
1 Stuart Reardon 1 Brent Webb
2 Shaun Briscoe 2 Doug Howlett
3 Keith Senior 3 Nigel Vagana
4 Chev Walker 4 Vinnie Anderson
5 Kris Radlinski 5 Caleb Ralph
6 Paul Sculthorpe 6 Stacey Jones
7 Jonny Wilkinson 7 Carlos Spencer
8 Terry O'Connor 8 Kevan Mealamu
9 Kevin Sinfield 9 Justin Marshall
10 Stuart Fielden 10 Nathan Cayless ©
11 Danny Tickle 11 Sonny-Bill Williams
12 Jamie Peacock 12 Awen Guttenbeil
13 Andy Farrel © 13 Evarn Tuimavave
++Interchange
14 Paul Deacon 14 Jerry Seu Seu
15 Ryan Bailey 15 Richie McCaw
16 Gareth Hock 16 David Kidwell
17 Steven Wild 17 Joe Rokocoko
Test match football may have taken a back-seat to the competitiveness of the State of Origin series in recent years, but both sides gave every indication that it was alive and well in a fiery opening stanza. The first salvo came from a twenty eight metre break from Andy Farrell only two minutes in, but his opposite number was quick to counter-attack with the ball in hand, a particularly powerful bust allowing Carlos Spencer to send a spiralling bomb up into the air. Whilst both situations were diffused, the opening of the game signalled the intentions of both sides to play attacking football.
The Lions had the first opportunity to go ahead in the 5th minute, when a penalty for a play the ball infringement gave Andy Farrell a shot at goal. The shot produced an uncharacteristic miss from the sharp-shooting Crusade captain, but the return set went achingly close to lifting England after a deft Jonny Wilkinson grubber forced Brent Webb to pull out all stops in escaping the in goal. A seventy five metre counterattack continued the game’s ebb and flow, with Nathan Cayless unable to throw a pass on the last and ending a promising movement.
New Zealand enjoyed the lion’s share of early territory, a result of both heavy defence on their part, and stupid penalties being conceded by the opposition. Whether it was Kevin Sinfield being bundled into touch by a heavy Awen Guttenbiel tackle, or Jonny Wilkinson’s sixteenth minute sin-binning for lifting Carlos Spencer above the horizontal, England proved to be their own worst enemy in the first quarter. But time and time again, the English managed to rally on their own line and repel even the most inventive of New Zealand raids. When the Kiwis were unable to score before Wilkinson’s return to the field, and managed to lose Caleb Ralph with a suspected broken jaw moments after, things looked grim for their cause. With an able replacement on the bench in the form of Joe Rokocoko, the Kiwis continued to mount pressure heading into halftime, but it was the possession starved English who drew first blood after thirty three minutes of scoreless football. The try came from the most innocuous of starts, with Stacey Jones losing the ball on his own thirty in a heavy Jamie Peacock tackle. Three tackles later, Andy Farrell lead his side by example as he rampaged across the line through some ineffective defence close to the line. The Dally M player of the year contender converted his own effort, to give England an unlikely but well deserved 6-0 lead heading into the break.
The try clearly disheartened the Kiwis, whose mountain of possession had so far secured them nothing but the loss of a player, and things got worse when Stacey Jones was unable to latch onto a sloppy Sonny-Bill Williams offload. None were blaming Jones, but he was his own worst critic as the English were able to score a try when Paul Sculthorpe managed to catch and ground his own chip close to the line. As halftime sounded, the Kiwis found themselves on the end of a 12-0 score line despite having held 60% of the first half possession.
HALFTIME: England 12 lead New Zealand 0
A more painful start the New Zealander’s couldn’t have imagined, with unfortunate Stacey Jones again dropping the ball after managing to skip out of a weak Chev Walker tackle. Whilst the three errors seemed to be a glaring fact on his stats card, fans weren’t hard on the diminutive Wollongong halfback, whose attacking play was perhaps all that the Kiwis had had to offer in the first half. Still, there was no consoling Jones when, only two minutes into the second half, Ryan Bailey was the unlikely recipient of a well placed Jonny Wilkinson bomb. The Destructors’ hard man was able to hold onto the ball, after a bobble or two, and ground it for a four pointer. Farrell was again equal to the task of converting, and the English looked well in control at 18-0.
Cue the inevitable Kiwi fightback. The defence lifted notably as David Kidwell returned to the park, the Cougars’ hit-man making each tackle as punishing as an Adrian Morley high special. The hardened defence quickly caused the English to play sidewards football, and the Kiwis were able to capitalise on the flatter style of attack their opposition were playing. When Doug Howlett was able to pluck a wayward Paul Sculthorpe long ball from the air and race sixty metres untouched for the Kiwis’ opening try, those faithful to the silver fern went up as one. Whilst Spencer wasn’t able to convert from out wide, the 18-4 scoreline with thirty five minutes remaining gave New Zealand plenty of hope for a fightback.
More ill-discipline from the England was the catalyst of New Zealand’s next try, with Keith Senior caught offside, giving the Kiwis great field position with which to mount their next offensive. It took only one tackle, big Kevan Mealamu powering on to the tap from Justin Marshall and mauling his way across the line. Two English defenders lay dazed in his wake, and by the time Spencer had added the extras, the English were well and truly aware they had a real game on their hands, 18-10 leaders after looking in control scant minutes earlier. The Kiwi comeback suffered a double blow in the latter half of the third quarter, however, with Richie McCaw leaving the field with a ruptured testicle, and then being denied an apparently legitimate try due to a dubious shepherding call from English referee, Russell Smith. The news continued to worsen for the visitors, with Doug Howlett and Sonny-Bill Williams both revealed to be carrying niggling injuries picked up in the intensity of the first half. All of the injuries in the world couldn’t contain the Kiwi pride as the game drew inexorably closer to its conclusion, however, and when Joe Rokocoko backed up a memorable Awen Guttenbiel bust in the 61st, Spencer’s conversion suddenly had the game hanging in the balance at 18-16. The English lead was all but gone, and while New Zealand were down to just fifteen men, the Lions looked at a loss for an answer. The 69th minute brought the Kiwis their finest moment of the match, after eight minutes of intense build up. The English, when they had the ball in hand, looked determined to hold onto their slender two point lead for the remaining minutes of the game. New Zealand, with the wind at their back and Kiwi pride on the line, finally captured the lead when Doug Howlett was able to take advantage of a three on two overlap and crash over in the corner for his second. Carlos Spencer took his time with the conversion, and the patience paid dividends, New Zealand 22-18 leaders with ten minutes of play remaining. The small but vocal Kiwi section of the crowd was up as one, sensing something special in the air.
The New Zealanders continued to play quality football as the final ten minutes of the game slowly passed, but the English lifted their game as well, and as a result- things were tense as the game wound towards its conclusion. Both sides had chances to well and truly win the game, but on both occasions, the defence proved equal to the task. When England lost Jamie Peacock to a nasty head clash in the 76th, their interchanges exhausted, any fightback would have to come with one less man on the park. Still, they had survived Wilkinson’s absence in the first half, and no one in the black of New Zealand was underestimating the English determination. The defence got the ball rolling with punishing hits on the Kiwis close to their line, and when Evarn Tuimavave coughed up the ball only fifteen out from his line- it was truly now or never for the Lions. Play after play was snuffed out by sheer desperation from the Kiwis, but at the end of the set Wilkinson lofted a bomb and the game came down to three men. For New Zealand, the lone guardian of a vital win was Joe Rokocoko, up against the flying assault of Stuart Reardon from Newcastle and Shaun Briscoe from the Crusade. Rokocoko leapt up for the ball, juggled once, and watched on in horror as Reardon was able to catch the ball and reel it in, crashing to the ground out wide for a match equalling try with only two minutes remaining on the clock. Andy Farrell took the maximum allowed time to consider the difficult conversion, but the roars of the English faithful guided it home, and the English would have to defend a 24-22 lead for the remaining forty seconds of the game.
The English gave the Kiwis every chance to steal victory, however, when Danny Tickle dropped an adventurous Stuart Fielden offload. The Kiwis had sixteen seconds to go some sixty five metres and score a miraculous try. It didn’t happen, however, with excellent marker defence effectively nulling the Kiwis’ fast play the balls. An ambitious chip from Stacey Jones found only the sideline, and England had survived for a 24-22 victory.
FULLTIME
England 24
Stuart Reardon
Ryan Bailey
Andy Farrell
Paul Sculthorpe
Farrell 4/5
Defeated
New Zealand 22
Doug Howlett 2
Kevan Mealamu
Joe Rokocoko
Spencer ¾
PoM Points:
Awen Guttenbiel…………3
Evarn Tuimavave…………2
Stacey Jones………………1
Take that Doug.... scored one when it mattered!
f**en hell. that was a long wait for that one.
damn in the best words of the chelsea coach, the best team didn't win!
on no two wins for you no haha, and first proper one (but still zero wins in the proper asrl)
