England vs New Zealand LIVE: Rugby result and reaction as England complete incredible comeback to snatch draw
England 25-25 New Zealand: Will Stuart scored two tries as England produced an incredible comeback from 25-6 down with nine minutes to go
England burgled an outrageous 25-25 draw from New Zealand after being out of the running for most of the match, a late brace from Will Stuart helping them to a result which will nonetheless do little to quieten coach Eddie Jones’s critics.
Flanker Dalton Papali’i opened the scoring for New Zealand after just four minutes, appearing to read an English strike play off the tail of their lineout and intercepting Jack van Poortvliet’s pass to run 45 metres untouched. They added a second minutes later, Codie Taylor bundling over from a lineout after England were penalised at the scrum, and the hosts were in bad shape at 0-14 down inside ten minutes.
With England’s attack misfiring all day while New Zealand were for the most part clinical, adding a third through Rieko Ioane, it took until the final 10 minutes for some encouragement for the fractious home fans.
With seemingly nothing to lose, England exploded out of nowhere, Marcus Smith skipping through a gap to set up a close-range Stuart try and Freddie Steward rounding off a free-flowing attack to add another. The Twickenham crowd were delirious when Stuart went over again in the final minute, with Smith converting to complete a remarkable comeback.
Relive all from the autumn international between England and the All Blacks below:
Scotland 0-3 Argentina, 6 minutes
The first scrum of the afternoon hits the deck, with Pierre Schoeman deemed to have hinged - perhaps harsh, that, as it looked like Eduardo Bello was slightly too long in his set-up. Anyway, an Argentina penalty.
Scotland 0-3 Argentina, 5 minutes
Scotland kick down towards the Argentina 22.
Funky! A darty lineout to the front from Fraser Brown and then the hooker fancies a return, but Jamie Ritchie’s netball pass back to him is a yard or so forward, and flies into touch. A nifty idea, but work needed on the execution.
Scotland 0-3 Argentina, 4 minutes
Ali Price gets more underneath his box kick than he’d like, and Argentina take it well. Santiago Carreras puts up a crossfield kick, and Argentina manage to claw it back, but it tumbles forward from a knee and is played by an offside player.
Scotland 0-3 Argentina, 3 minutes
Argentina do rather better with the restart, Gonzalo Bertranou kicking up the right touchline and Stuart Hogg chopped in half by Bautista Delguy.
Scotland kick, Finn Russell trying to turn Argentina, but Juan Cruz Mallia tracks it well.
A prolonged kicking exchange sees Emiliano Boffelli nearly get to Mallia’s next high hoist, but Russell does well to both take and flick an offload away.
PENALTY! Scotland 0-3 ARGENTINA (Emiliano Boffelli penalty, 2 minutes)
Smooth as you like from Boffelli. Argentina into an immediate lead.
Scotland 0-0 Argentina, 1 minute
And that’s an excellent start for the visitors - a sharp tackle after a hanging restart, and Marcos Kremer’s counter-ruck earns a breakdown penalty.
Julian Montoya gestures towards the post. On comes the tee for Emiliano Boffelli.
Off we go!
Argentina kick off, and the final match of the year for these two sides is underway.
Officials
England’s Karl Dickson is our whistle-man this afternoon, with Brett Cronan of Australia ready to assist as the TMO.
Flower of Scotland
The Saltires wave along to the pleasant opening piping of “Flower of Scotland”. It looks another full Murrayfield house for the last Test of the year for Scotland.
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