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Thursday, August 21, 2025
Other SportsEngland edged out by New Zealand in first-Test thriller

England edged out by New Zealand in first-Test thriller

England fell agonisingly short of a first win in New Zealand for 21 years after fly-half Damian McKenzie kicked the hosts to a 16-15 win in Dunedin.

Sevu Reece and Ardie Savea went over in the first half for the All Blacks but a Maro Itoje try and a Marcus Smith penalty levelled matters at half-time.

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso then put England in front but Smith missed two straightforward penalties which enabled McKenzie to kick New Zealand to a hard-fought win.

England captain Jamie George told Sky Sports: “I’m incredibly proud of the way we attacked. Not many teams come to New Zealand and do that.

“Scrum and breakdown are two areas we need look at and we’ll do a lot of work to make sure we’re better next week.

“We wanted to make people at home proud and I think we did that tonight. It was a match decided by very fine margins.

“We’ve got to learn fast and will prepare as best we can. There’ll be a few sore bodies but it will be a really exciting week for us.” 

The result will come as a relief for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, who was able to enjoy his first game in charge.

Robertson said: “It was a hell of an arm wrestle. We didn’t get our kick-game right. It was a bit of a grind but we got there.

“The scrum was immense and won a couple of vital penalties.

“That’s our first hit of the year and we’re on a pretty steep learning curve so it’s good to start with a win.

“We’ve tried to keep it simple but we didn’t quite deal with their line speed so we learned a lot there for next week.”

The two-match series now heads to Eden Park in Auckland for the second Test next Saturday. 

Jon Fisher
Jon Fisher
Jon has over 20 years' experience in sports journalism having worked at the Press Association, Goal and Stats Perform, covering three World Cups, an Olympics and numerous other major sporting events.
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