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:
PENALTY! Ireland 3-3 AUSTRALIA (Foley, 55 mins)
He missed one in the first half but Bernard Foley makes no mistake this time. The kick sails through and Australia are level at 3-3.
Will that spark this match into life?
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 54 mins
Australia win the scrum solidly enough and will have a penalty as Ireland are pinged.
They play advantage but this looks nasty for Taniela Tupou. He goes down without contact and immediately clutches his right lower leg. He’s in a lot of pain. He’s helped on to the cart and will be driven off the field.
The Wallabies will go for the posts from this penalty just outside the 22.
Allan Alaalatoa comes back on for the prop, while Nic White is back on for Jake Gordon as well - presumably an HIA for the back-up scrum-half.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 54 mins
Nice nudge by Foley after a good loop play off the scrum gains them a lot of ground. Ireland will have to execute a lineout on their own 22.
And they can’t! Knock-on at the lineout gives Australia an attacking scrum. What can they do here?
Sub for Ireland - Bundee Aki, back from his 8-week ban for a frankly disgraceful ruck clearout, is on for Stuart McCloskey in the centres. McCloskey has carried hard once again today - a decent performance.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 53 mins
Hugo Keenan knocks on, so it’s a scrum. We’re back to contested now that Australia have a full complement.
Ah, I was wondering when we would see Will Skelton! The monster Wallabies lock comes on to the field - he has been the scourge of Irish sides before...
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 52 mins
Talking of great counter-rucking, Ireland do good work to win the ball and the crowd get excited as they go wide to the left but there’s no joy for them and they then get turned over at the ruck.
Australia exit into Irish territory with the kick.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 50 mins
Good maul defence by Australia, so Ireland release the ball and come infield. McCloskey carries hard to within five metres.
But the Aussie players celebrate as they win the penalty! O’Mahony gets called for coming in at the side - he looks disgusted but it was the right call. Superb counter-rucking caught him out and made him feel he had to come in from the side.
That’s O’Mahony’s final act as he’s subbed off for Jack Conan.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 49 mins
Ireland kick to the corner, the crowd start to make some noise. This is a great opportunity given how good the Irish maul is.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 49 mins
Again, they can’t covert though. The attacking execution from both teams has been sloppy today. Ringrose gets himself held up in the tackle, so it’s a Wallabies scrum.
This is turning into a war of attrition now as Rob Valetini gingerly heads off to be replaced by Pete Samu. He accidentally ended up going face to face with Dan Sheehan in a tackle.
Both men are very upright, low amount of danger, so just a penalty with no cards. Probably fair.
Ireland 3-0 Australia, 48 mins
Nic White takes a blow to the head as he goes down in the tackle and makes contact with a knee. So he’s off for a HIA, with Jake Gordon coming on.
Ireland win the lineout and now they’re into the Wallabies 22 again...
NO TRY! Ireland 3-0 Australia, 47 mins
This time going blind does work! Australia don’t have it covered and Hansen has space, the cover defence comes and he offloads inside to Gibson-Park for the score.
But replays show Hansen’s foot was in touch. So close! Australia now back up to 15 as Fainga’a’s sin-bin is over so he comes back on, as do Valetini and Petaia (who were off to allow the extra front-rower to come on), so the Wallabies back to a full complement of 15 and no damage done while at a personnel disadvantage.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments