RugbyRebels

Minute 36: England have another phase, but it's more about resetting than fishing for weaknesses and we set up the caterpillar and box routine. This one is much shallower than intended, but Freeman can get up to compete and can tap back to England's side for Itoje to gather and take on.

Fin Baxter then carries up as a pod of three and dummies the pass before carrying in himself, but there's a double tackle waiting for him and he gets absolutely clumped and sent backwards. Maybe should've let the pass go Fin!

The ball spills loose and Mitchell does well to take it and play out. Martin makes up the ground that Baxter just lost, but NZ compete hard at the ruck and MSmith drops back into the pocket for the inevitable kick. He changes his mind and decides he can step inside Codie Taylor - it's a good call and would've been a nice break had he made it, but unfortunately Taylor reacts a bit quicker than MSmith thought and hangs onto his leg. I don't want to curb those "I bet I can make that" instincts too much, cause they're part of what makes him such a good prospect, but he needs to get better at picking the level at which he *can* make it at international level.

Smith offloads to Mitchell who then kicks under tremendous pressure and it's a poor effort that just feeds Perofeta. Thankfully our defensive line is in place this time and Perofeta has to kick, but Slade then fumbles a very easy catch under no pressure. Thankfully it goes backwards and he has time to regather, but what should've been a mark just inside the 22 turns into a scrappy kick under pressure, that results in a NZ lineout just 33m out.

Minute 37: NZ throw to the front and go off the top. They throw it into midfield for Papali'i to run at MSmith, but he makes a good chop to bring him down. NZ go through a couple more phases without advancing far, but Earl gives away a soft penalty by continuing to compete for the ball even after he'd clearly lost his balance and put hands on the floor.

New Zealand attempt to use the advantage with a pair of pull-back moves to try and get outside of the rush defence and it ends up with Ioane having a one-on-one with Mitchell who has rushed up from the wing to cut him off at centre. Ioane tries to go through, but is chopped down effectively and New Zealand have lost 10 metres in that move. Itoje then plays the ruck very cleverly - he makes a legitimate entry through the gate, but is second man in so can't go for the ball and also can't take out Christie until he picks it up. Instead he looms over Christie like a big brother playing a game of "I'm not touching you" and the presence forces Christie to make a mistake, so we're back for the penalty.

Minute 38: McKenzie flirts with the shot-clock, but gets it done for 13-7. Soft three points for England to concede.

Minute 39: More orthodox kick-off this time, but it's a very good one - high and hanging, but landing just far enough away from the Kiwi forwards that they can't get a pod up. And who is there but Maro Fucking Itoje, leaping in from a distance to slap the ball out of SBarrett's hands and towards our side.

Martin gathers the loose ball and makes a good strong carry to see us into the 22. Quick ball and another three-man pod runs - this time Baxter dummies inside to Underhill (who is taken off the ball, but nm) and then accelerates through contact to make another metre. Wide ball to Smith who plays behind our dummy runners, but unfortunately not a single All Black bought them and we now have an underlap. Steward makes the right call to step inside and carry up himself - he rides the tackles well enough to buy time for support to reach him and secure the ball. Mitchell goes for a snipe on the short side, but NZ are numbered up - there is a pass on to give Slade a run down the left wing, but instead he opts for:

Kicking Away Decent Attacking Ball: MSmith x1, Mitchell x1

It's better than the Smith one in that there is a small target area of space in which a grubber could've landed for Slade to score, but Mitchell's kick doesn't even get close to hitting it and just rolls touch in goal for McKenzie to dot down.

Minute 40: New Zealand kick the drop-out long to halfway and Mitchell gathers to feed Earl. He accelerates and steps inside the first defender, making a half-break that takes us up to 30 metres out. Itoje piles over to secure quick ball and Mitchell spins it out for Underhill to run onto - he takes us up the edge of the 22 and Cunningham-South comes flying in to clear out. It could definitely be argued that we're not staying on our feet here, but we deserve some rub of the refereeing green after the first half so far.

Mitchell goes for a snipe, but it's a poor call as the gap he hopes for closes quickly - he makes a metre but it's now slow ball. Baxter picks and goes to resuscitate the momentum and it's decent ball again. Mitchell goes to Smith who has options, but Telea does an excellent job of charging up in the outside channel and shutting down the passing, so Smith steps back inside and takes the tackle.

Stuart carries next phase and makes ground - he's had a decent half so far. Underhill picks and goes immediately from the tackle and we go deeper into the 22, forcing NZ back. Unfortunately he's clever enough that he's outfoxed his support and Mitchell is the only one there to secure the ball, resulting in possession being slowed right down again.

Minute 41: The ball eventually comes out to Smith and he passes short to IFW who runs the crash ball line more effectively than Lawrence has all match, skittling two ABs and getting the ball back quickly. Smith follows the ball to the blind side and attacks the line at pace - he doesn't make a clean break, but he makes NZ panic and overload the left hand side of the pitch. Even better, New Zealand give away a penalty advantage for interfering with Mitchell at the next breakdown, which gives us licence to gamble. Martin carries up and makes another couple of metres and then Smith sits back in the pocket - I think NZ are expecting the drop-goal, but instead he puts a high ball up on the right wing. It's beautifully placed and chased - Telea is underneath it, but he's backing into it while Freeman is running on full-tilt. He leaps and takes it far above Telea's grasp and can't be stopped by the cover before he gets over the line.

Minute 42: Lots of replays of Freeman taking the ball AFL style above his head. Great technique. The ref gives me conniptions by asking his TMO "Is there anything clear and obvious?" but it turns out he's enquiring as to what instigated the claret coming from Underhill's head, so it's all fine.

Minute 43: Smith flirts with the edge of the shot-clock as well, but taps over a difficult conversion to make it 12-14 to the good guys at half-time.

Saving these up for a full read, but know that it's appreciated as always, Puja

Minute 41: Kick off picks out Ben Earl by the touchline, but he has the space to run sideways to set up a better-placed ruck 15m in on the edge of the 22. The box-kick is longer than Mitchell's best efforts - I think it was meant for touch, but JBarrett keeps it in and then passes inside for Perofeta to have a run. He does make a half-break through a worrying hole in our kick-chase, but the following line is solid and shuts him down just inside our half. New Zealand then go backwards 10m over 3 phases, before playing it deep for McKenzie to kick high. It's another terrible effort - just gives possession back to England. Smith takes with ease and decides to deliver his own high ball.

Minute 42: It's not perfect, as it's drifted too long to compete or tackle, but the chase makes it good - Freeman shepherds the ball inside and MSmith is up there himself to make the tackle. Itoje competes at the ruck and then snags Finau's arm as he tries to play 9 - he must be infuriating to play against. Slow ball and Christie tries the caterpillar and box, only to prove another poor copy - it's straight down Steward's throat with room to run. Freddie is off and away, arcing into the midfield and it's a great run - he's outflanked half the kick-chase and there's a dishevelled defence and space outside. All he needs to do is feed IFW.

Unfortunately, Freddie thinks he sees half a gap and wants to go himself. It's possibly there if you've got George Furbank's change of pace, but it's not there for Freddie Steward's and his step inside results in him getting a few ribs removed by Ethan de Groot's shoulder. We've still got the ball, but the attack is dead. Stuart carries it up to reset and it's a caterpillar and box routine.

This one is contestible if there aren't 14 All Blacks forming a crowd completely coincidentally placed between the catcher and the chaser, but unfortunately that's not the world that we live in, so Freeman settles for making the tackle.

Minute 43: New Zealand try another caterpillar and this time the box-kick is better. MSmith still gathers uncontested, but it's placed well enough that JBarrett could've made the tackle had he stayed on the ground and not gone on a flying leap that stood no chance of getting the ball or doing anything but taking out Smith in the air. Weird choices.

Slade kicks down to about 35m out.

Minute 44: The lineout goes to the middle and we play off the top, Mitchell spinning it into midfield. It is unusually Smith standing at 10 (rather than Earl or Slade) and we play a nice training ground move. Underhill runs a hard line off Smith, but he passes to Earl (who is playing an orthodox 12 role). Lawrence runs hard, but Earl draws two defenders and plays it nicely to Slade, who is arcing around. We've worked an overlap, but Slade throws an ugly pass - I think he was aiming for Steward, but it goes across his face and forces Feyi-Waboso to stop and stoop to collect it, killing the opportunity stone dead. IFW nearly resuscitates it with some nice footwork to ensorcell two NZ defenders, but unfortunately he throws a blind offload to where he hopes Steward is looping around him and our boy FreddieS is not on the same wavelength and has already moved in to support the imminent ruck. The ball hits the deck and, while we recover it, we're now back on the halfway line with the world's slowest possession.

NZ are assuming we're going to set up a box-kick, but we've actually got numbers down the short-side - Freeman draws the blitz and drops a nice inside ball to IFW, but Manny's got his eyes on the gap he's running at rather than on the ball and he fumbles it.

Not the best minute of the new English way of attacking rugby that. However, we are saved by NZ having stumbled forward before the ball was out and then failing to retire, so we get a cheap penalty with which to try again.

Minute 45: Slade kicks for touch and gets it 15m out from the tryline. We throw to the middle, bring it down as if to drive, then Earl breaks away and runs sideways to interest the backmarkers of the lineout. They step in and Earl offloads to Lawrence running a hard line at the gap at the back. It's a good move and is only stopped from being a great one by an excellent tackle from Ioane and incredible patience from Berry as Ioane is given an age to extricate himself from "accidentally" being the wrong side of the tackle. Changes it from a 1 second ruck with England charging forwards to a 4 second ruck with New Zealand's forwards having been able to fold around - excellent cynical play, but should 100% be our penalty advantage.

We go again and Baxter makes a great carry, but the next phase is less impactful from George and Telea can get in to rip the ball free, which Berry calls as a knock-on. Infuriating reffing there and does make you understand why we've at times not had patience in the red zone - a KADAB might have only a 10% chance of coming off, but you lose the ball just as certainly when the wheel of Berry spins badly for you.

Minute 46: George complains to Berry that NZ stripped the ball after he'd gone to ground, but Berry replies that it was his call that "he stripped you on the way down - it's a judgement call." Fair enough, but then how is it George's knock-on if you've seen it was stripped? Wild.

No scrummaging occurs this minute, so all we're left to discuss is whinging about the ref.

Minute 47: The scrum wobbles and goes up, then down - that could be anyone's offence and the camera angle is not close enough to show, but Berry says the ball's at the back, so NZ play away without the pen they were hoping for. Perofeta boots it out, but only to just outside the 22.

Minute 48: Cunningham-South takes the front ball under a lot of pressure from Barrett and shows good nous to delay his offload until he's sure he can do it cleanly. The ball goes out to midfield and Smith thinks he sees a hole and goes for it. It is an okay half-break, but his centres (which is how I am legitimately describing Slade and Earl) are committed to running lines outside him and he doesn't make enough ground for them to adjust and get in back behind him. Sevu Reece is in sharply over the ball and it's a NZ penalty... no, wait, Berry's reversed it, saying Slade was taken off the ball. Straight in front of the posts and George opts for goal.

I've had some words to say about Berry so far, but we've just got a free 3 points there - that was absolutely nothing. If anything, Slade runs into Papali'i, and the very mild handoff he gets is as much self-defence as anything else. I'd be fuming if I were a Kiwi, but we were robbed a couple of minutes ago, so it's swings and roundabouts.

Minute 49: Smith converts the gift and it's 13-17 to England. Dan, Cole, and Curry come on - big calls these, as Stuart and Underhill were having very good games and George was his usual quietly influential self.

NZ kick down to the 22 and play a smart move - they let Martin take the ball uncontested, but Reece has come around to England's side and is first player in to latch onto the ball like he's joining England's maul. It's especially clever since a kick-off is one of the only kicks in the game where that tactic would result in a New Zealand scrum rather than an England one. England counter it well though - Earl and Curry drive hard so the maul goes 15m forward and the domestic abuser is knocked loose as it all hits the deck, so we get the ball back. Mitchell box-kicks and it's another decent one - Freeman attempts to go up to compete rather than tackle and is unsubtly (legally) shunted out of the way, giving JBarrett free reign, but Baxter is up in the first line and takes his legs from under him.

The ball is spun into midfield and Dan is up quick to make a low tackle, but falls like a dead branch and doesn't get up again. Credit to Berry - he sees it immediately and the game is brought to a halt so he can get medical attention. Replays show him getting his head on the wrong side of Tuipulotu's knees and getting bounced, and then collecting TCurry's knee to the back of his head on the way down. Night night button pressed and he will be playing no further part in the match. Poor Jamie George has barely had a chance to get his first beer order in before he's required back on the pitch.

Kudos for the use of ensorcell there! Wheel of Berry is also nice.