England captain Jamie George is desperate for a rematch with the All Blacks after another gut-wrenching reverse down under.
George’s side went down 24-17 at Kiwi stronghold Eden Park where New Zealand have not lost for 30 years.
For the second weekend in a row they gave Scott Robertson’s side the hurry-up but fell just short and have earned respect south of the equator.
George, above, nearly scored a game-saving try at the death but was denied by referee Nic Berry when England felt it should been play on. Instead, they got pinged for obstruction and the Kiwis lived to fight another day but George says England will be ready for them when they arrive to play at Twickenham on November 2.
George, who put in a huge shift, said: “The big message from me is that we proud of the players’ prospect. I was just really effort will never start from zero again. I spoke in the week about the journey that the team has been on, where we’ve come from throughout this pretty long season to where we are now, I’m pretty proud of all the work that’s gone in across the board.
“I said it to the boys, we’ve got a great opportunity. It’s important we need to rest, but at the back of our minds we’ve got a great opportunity when we next come together – the All Blacks at Twickenham – and that’s a hugely exciting to stay in it. I am not sure there are too many teams that try and take on the All Blacks like we did in the latter part of that game.”
On referee Berry’s decision near the end, George said: “I think it’s wrong. If you’re looking for infringements, I think there is an infringement in the maul first.”
England might have lost two from two to New Zealand after last weekend’s 16-15 defeat in Dunedin but they were not the pushovers the locals thought they would be.
Head coach Steve Borthwick revealed the taunts he had to put up with this week in the lead-up to the game from Kiwi fans who thought his side were going to get thrashed.
Borthwick said: “A lot of people were saying, after the first Test, that New Zealand were going to get so much better. I was being told by people in the street about 10 times a day how much we were going to get blown away by at Eden Park. On Friday a gentleman told me that they had unpicked our rush defence, they knew how they were going to beat it, and were going to deliver that. I said ‘thank you for that’. I was told in the lift today that we would be lucky to get away with less than 50 points conceded.
“The team kept on coming at New Zealand today, kept fighting, and when we went down 24-17, some teams wouldn’t have come back. What these guys did was get back to the New Zealand line, going hard to get the seven points to try and get that draw. That’s a great credit to them and I’m very proud to work with them. A lot of people were writing us off.
“We have enjoyed being here for three weeks. The players and management team have loved being in this fabulous country. To have people so passionate about this incredible sport, it is brilliant.”
Freddie Steward and Theo Dan both went off for HIAs with Dan’s injury meaning George had to do virtually the whole 80 minutes. But it will go down as another near-miss for Borthwick’s side who have lost nail-biters to South Africa, France and twice to New Zealand in their last 10 games.
He added: “We are on average a couple of years younger, even with Dan Cole in our squad and a few hundred caps short of them, what I need to do is accelerate the learning of the team to close that gap as quickly as possible.”
New Zealand’s new-look side got away with one twice in two weeks while England will view this as another missed chance.
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett said: “Test matches challenge your character. We had to dig deep. You’re never comfortable in this environment and we’re looking to build on these performances.”
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