All Blacks: Cruden's try offsets trouble with kicking

Aaron Cruden scored a try against England and says he was pleased with his overall performance. Photo / Getty Images

A well-taken try and an all-round tidy game meant Aaron Cruden was pleased with his afternoon's work at Twickenham, although he concedes his goalkicking remains a work in progress.

Cruden was successful with two from five attempts against England, following his difficult time with his boot against the USA in Chicago last week. Beauden Barrett also struggled with his radar when coming on at first-five after 60 minutes yesterday - kicking one from three, his two misses from relatively easy angles.

For Cruden it was his first big test since his demotion in the Rugby Championship and on the whole he did well.

"I thought Crudes took a step up from last week," assistant coach Ian Foster said. "I really liked the way he controlled our game. We were under a lot of pressure in the first half, we weren't getting a lot of front-foot ball and the English were defending with a lot of line speed and coming up pretty solid. It took a lot of patience and I liked the way he waited his way through that game. He didn't try to pull something magical out of his hat every time."

His try, which levelled the scores in the first half, came when he went on an angled run on to Aaron Smith's pass close to the line. Many in the crowd voiced their disapproval at the grounding, but Cruden was in no doubt and neither was referee Nigel Owens.

Watch: Highlights: All Blacks 24 England 21

"I was pretty confident I got across the line and obviously Nigel was too," he said. "When it's played back in slow motion and the crowd get a good look at it they weren't too happy but I was pretty happy with the five points."

Cruden was happy with not only his try and general performance but also the team's under the England pressure.

Steve Hansen might opt to start Dan Carter at No 10 against Scotland in Edinburgh next week but Cruden can feel justifiably pleased with his efforts. Improvements in his goalkicking will come too, he said. "I haven't found my rhythm there yet but I will put the work in and in my next opportunity hopefully a few more go between the posts."