All About England Rugby
What a great Test match, no matter which side you were supporting. 19-23 was the final score and many yellow cards handed out. The All Blacks, in fact, played for over 20 minutes of the 2nd half with at least one player off the field and there was even a period of time that they were down to 13 men.
An opening try within the first 3 minutes by England would have had a few All Black supporters worried and for a good few minutes it seemed that New Zealand could only make mistakes whenever they had possession of the ball. The new haka by New Zealand, as done against South Africa, is a sight that had a few of us neutral supporters hairs standing on end, it also might have pumped up the New Zealand players a bit too much.
Dan Carter helped set things straight soon though with a good break close to the line and a deft pass to captain Tana Umaga for him to touch down between the posts. From then on the All Blacks had a few wobbles but always were in control of the match.
New Zealand were victorius and one could tell from both the scoreline as well as the the All Black celebrations at the final whistle how difficult a victory it was. Definitely entertaining as hoped and New Zealand will be very happy with their hard-earned win.
