England Defeats the All Blacks in an Epic Clash at Twickenham
In a gray afternoon in Twickenham, England lit up the field with a performance for the history books, surpassing the All Blacks with a score of 33-19. They demonstrated character, precision, physicality and, above all, immense self-confidence.
The tension held until the 76th minute, when Tom Roebuck secured the victory with his try, establishing a 14-point lead. The match was a display of emotional energy, with England showing their growth as a dominant force.
Despite starting 12-0 down in the first 18 minutes, England didn’t lose focus. They recovered with tries from Ollie Lawrence, Sam Underhill, Fraser Dingwall, and Tom Roebuck, delighting the fans.Tom Roebuck sealed England’s victory with his fourth try.At the end of the match, the English celebrations were a mixture of joy and exhaustion. This team became the ninth in English history to beat the All Blacks.
England has built 10 consecutive victories and shut out the All Blacks. The match was intense, played to the limit of pressure and psychological capacity.
England showed they are building under Steve Borthwick. Ford was magnificent at fly-half. Ford scored a penalty in the 75th minute to extend England’s lead to nine points before Roebuck scored a minute later to seal the 33-19 result.Codie Taylor scored New Zealand’s second try at Twickenham.It was an expert management, in a match in which their two drop-goals just before halftime reduced the All Blacks’ lead from 12-5 to 12-11.
England built and built until the All Blacks’ dam broke. When Roebuck scored, the old stadium rose from its foundations.
The English team had some moments where the fundamentals failed them. They lost three lineouts on their own throw in the first half. Something unheard of.
But even so, they didn’t let this affect them, even when they were losing 12-0, they didn’t flinch.
And the All Blacks’ mistakes arrived: two missed penalty kicks to the touch zone, knock-ons and general clumsiness.George Ford scored two drop goals before halftime to reduce the difference to just one point.Looking introspectively at those setbacks, it’s also a credit to England that this happened and the sight of their “pom squad” lining up in the 51st minute to come off the bench gave them another surge of momentum and urgency.
From there, they survived a possible All Blacks comeback when Will Jordan scored to make it a six-point game in the 65th minute, while England were down to 14 men with Ben Earl sin-binned.
But they resisted it, and it was England who delivered the final blows of the match. The scrum ended up dominating, England was first on every loose ball, and it was they who had the match in the palm of their hand.
New Zealand will be bewildered by this. They were going for a Grand Slam on the northern hemisphere tour, but they fell short.
Besides their two lightning tries, they were seconds ahead of a team that played at a higher intensity, that was much more physical and clinical.
Mark this down as a statement performance from England, ending a 13-year wait for a victory over the All Blacks at Twickenham.
Ford will grab the headlines and rightly so, but this was a win from No. 1 to No. 23 and a test of progress.
