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.
Thank you for a great game, @ALLBLACKS 🤝#NZLVENG | @O2 | #WEARTHEROSE PIC.TWITTER.COM/JNQEBGEVDO
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) JULY 6, 2024
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.
