Video: All Blacks disappointed with final quarter
View photos: All Blacks v England, first testKEY POINTS:
England remain one of rugby's great frauds. Certainly in the Southern Hemisphere where they fell again to the All Blacks and could have been beaten by 50 points.
It continues a standard they have shown since their first visit to New Zealand in 1963 where victories are rare, where strong performances are equally scarce, where you wonder what is the point of their visit.
Interim coach Rob Andrew twitters on about showing up, giving a strong account of themselves and displaying some ticker for the perusal of home-shackled coach Martin Johnson, but the latest defeat leaves England with two wins in 11 tests since they first played here.
Saturday's 37-20 demise at Eden Park continued the familiar pattern, with the English lumber creating problems for about 50 minutes while their backs showed little aptitude for a decent battle.
Without Topsy Ojo's two long-distance sprints for tries, it would have been a blowout. It was embarrassing. The All Blacks only played a decent 40 minutes of this match while assistant coach Steve Hansen downplayed his side's efforts in a game where they were able to play subs like Sione Lauaki and Anthony Boric soon after halftime before giving Stephen Donald a run near the end.
"We are probably travelling at about 50 per cent I reckon," Hansen said. "We are really excited about the group and making good progress."
That sort of enthusiasm is worth plenty at the start of a season while England have one final test in Christchurch this Saturday before they can put their feet up for about a month while Johnson sets out his cull policy.
The tourists will be wondering what is going to hit them in Christchurch this week if the weather is kind.
At the moment, this is a steady All Black side and no more; one which is trying to bed in after the dramas of last year. Yet, for all those dramas they were substantially better than England. In one purple decade when England deservedly won the Rugby World Cup, they averaged about 70 per cent international victories before reverting to the sort of bulk-and-bluster performance they showed on Saturday at Eden Park.
Since coach Clive Woodward disappeared, they have slipped under 50 per cent in their winning ratio and that showed again on Saturday, beaten 37-20 after arriving in New Zealand with the promise of at least being competitive. In truth they were well off the mark. It could have been stage fright for some of the tourists but behind the pack they were woeful.
Not that the pack was much chop outside the lineout, where they embarrassed the All Blacks, or at the rucks where referee Nigel Owens allowed the tourists to flop into contact.
This week's controller Jonathan Kaplan should be far more strict on those illegalities.
Even without Owens' latitude, England had their scrum rearranged on tighthead Matt Stevens side where Neemia Tialata had it all over him, while they conceded an alarming 11 linebreaks to two and lost out heavily in the turnovers.
The All Blacks were under the heat for the opening quarter but once they got the ball away from the close-quarter pile ups and got some first-phase possession against the flaky defence of the English backs, they put the game quickly out of reach. They scored four tries and easily could have had another but for Ojo's intercept.
Hansen's propensity to downplay the All Blacks came in handy yesterday as he talked about the second test challenges facing his side in Christchurch. "We are in the early stages of building a house," he said.
"That means we have got to get the foundations right before we start chopping and changing too much.
"Having said that there are some guys over the next couple of days who will show us they need a break."
England had the potential to be a really good side.
New coach Johnson would create that culture and lay a strong foundation but, for the short term, Hansen conceded that the visitors were unlikely to make drastic improvements. "I can't see them changing too much," he said.
The All Blacks danger this week was letting complacency interfere with their preparation. They had a great deal of work to achieve on their lineout, they needed to assess a few players to keep them fresh for the rest of the test programme, others like Tony Woodcock and Richard Kahui would be gauged to see if they were ready.
