All Blacks v England: Codie Taylor sorry for costly yellow card in England defeat

All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor said he let the country down following his yellow card in the side’s 33-19 defeat to England this morning.

England beat the All Blacks at home for the first time since 2012 and, in doing so, ended the Grand Slam hopes of Scott Robertson’s side.

The turning point in the test came early in the second half when Taylor was yellow-carded by Italian referee Andrea Piardi for hands in a ruck. The All Blacks were leading 12-11 at the time but England made the most of the one-man advantage scoring shortly after to take the lead - which they never gave up.

Taylor told Sky Sport after the loss he was “gutted” at the result.

“Personally, I feel like I let my country down a little bit there with the yellow card and I just want to apologise and own that.”

All Blacks fans may have thought the yellow-card decision was borderline, but Taylor took responsibility for the mistake.

“It’s fine margins. Hands in the wrong place and you’re going to be pulled up especially in these big test matches. I’ve got to take that on the chin,” he added.

Taylor admitted England made the most of their chances after the All Blacks went out to an early 12-0 lead, including the hooker going over.

“We knew it was going to be a tough test match. We probably felt like we had the first half and then they just crawled their way back.

“We probably put ourselves under a little bit of pressure through the middle of the field.

“We found a way to get back down there but England just jumped on the moments and they took some points when they could.

“We let ourselves down a couple times with our scrum.

“The great thing about this team is that we’re really tight ... At the end of the day, if you get to put on the All Blacks jersey, you want to do it proud and whatever that looks like for some players, we just need to prepare accordingly.”