Sam Underhill and Courtney Lawes recall moment England missed out on win but won't dwell on decision

England believed they'd scored a potential match-winning try against New Zealand, only to have it overturned by a controversial TMO review

Courtney Lawes admitted that he thought he was onside when he charged down New Zealand scrum-half TJ Perenara that resulted in England’s controversial disallowed try on Saturday, but accepted along with scorer Sam Underhill that whatever decision the referee made was the one they had to live with.

Trailing New Zealand by a point with four minutes left of the Quilter International at Twickenam, England looked to have secured only their seventh victory over the All Blacks when Lawes’ deflection fell kindly for Underhill to race 40m and fend off Beauden Barrett to score in the corner.

But after initially awarding a try, referee Jerome Garces consulted the television match official Marius Jonker, who controversially decided that Lawes was offside as Perenara removed the ball from the ruck.

“I haven’t seen it,” Lawes reflected after the match. “In the moment I thought ‘I am onside here, I am going to charge it down’.

“You don’t have any power in it so you have to get on with whatever happens.”

While England retreated to prepare for the restart and Owen Farrell lined up what he thought would be a conversion attempt, the New Zealand players watched the replays on the big screen before walking beyond Garces and Farrell, led by Sam Whitelock and Kieran Read, as they were convinced it was a penalty in their favour.

Footage of the incident remains inconclusive, but Lawes admitted that the All Blacks’ confidence was not a surprise. “I suppose you do that as a team. There is not a lot I can say. I was deemed offside and therefore I was offside.

“I think the game should just be played by the rules. I don’t know exactly what the offside line was so I can’t really comment on it right now. We will go back and review it. Maybe I need to take a step.”

Sam Underhill thought he'd secured England victory over New Zealand (Getty)

But while Lawes was deemed the culprit, Underhill was very much the victim. The recalled Bath flanker was enjoying his best showing in an England shirt yet after a nightmare 2017/18 season heavily impacted by injuries, and when he sprinted away and wrong-footed Barrett to score, he soaked up the adulation of more than 82,000 fans losing their minds with what was unfolding in front of them.

Many will have believed that the contest was over by that point with England just needing to see out a handful of minutes that remained, but Underhill’s crowning glory was cruelly taken away from him.

Courtney Lawes charged down TJ Perenara but saw Sam Underhill's resulting try disallowed (Getty)

“It’s a bit of a blur,” Underhill said. “The ball popped up and I was in the right place. I just tried to get the ball in the right hand and go for the corner. It was what it was, the decision that was made. It was disappointing but that’s the way it goes.

“It’s tough to take but it was marginal and that’s the game. It could have been a penalty for us in front of the posts at a different stage, it could have been any moment in that game the result could have gone our way or theirs. That one, while it could have been a fairly big one, it doesn’t mean it’s any different from those others.

“When something like that happens, ultimately the ref’s decision is final – if he says the grass is pink then the grass is pink – so we try to refocus for the next job because that’s what’s important, we can’t go back and change anything.

“After a game, if you lose, you are gutted. I don’t think there is ever a time where you lose a game that you’re not gutted, which is probably right.

“In the week we’ll probably be able to take some heart out of what we did in the game. We did some really good stuff, and we will be able to take away a lot from that. Other than that, you’re pretty disappointed and as a squad we’ll get together and hopefully this experience will make us tighter as a group.”