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Opinion
Home / Sport / Rugby / All Blacks

The Stats Don't Lie: Where England won the test

Opinion by
Herald online
2 Dec, 2012 10:03 PM3 mins to read

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Manu Tuilagi was their standout at centre with one clean linebreak that evaded three tacklers to set up Bradley Barrett's try. Photo / Getty Images

Manu Tuilagi was their standout at centre with one clean linebreak that evaded three tacklers to set up Bradley Barrett's try. Photo / Getty Images

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Rugby statistician Tracey Nelson crunches the numbers from the All Blacks' 17 point defeat to England.

England got their first win at home over the All Blacks after nine years and broke New Zealand's run of 28 consecutive test victories in November/December tests.

The 17 point winning margin is England's largest ever over New Zealand. It is only the second time in history they have beaten the All Blacks by more than six points. The only other occasion was in 1936, when the All Blacks lost 13-0 at Twickenham.

The winning margin is also the All Blacks' third worst defeat of all time, headed off only by the 21 point margin against Australia in 1999 and the 17 point margin against South Africa in 1928 (which sneaks in ahead of this loss to England as the All Blacks scored no points in that 1928 loss).

It was the first time since July 1998 (against South Africa in Wellington) that the All Blacks have been held scoreless in the first half, and England join Scotland as the two sides to score the most tries (three) in a game against New Zealand in 2012.

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While the All Blacks showed they have mastered the art of holding up an opposition maul (three turnovers off England), it was England who won the battle of the breakdown with three tackle turnovers and two penalties awarded for the All Blacks not releasing the ball when tackled.

England's backs made 10 clean linebreaks to the seven by the All Blacks, and in the process they beat 13 defenders while amassing their 310 running metres. Manu Tuilagi was their standout at centre with one clean linebreak that evaded three tacklers (Carter, McCaw and Aaron Smith) to set up Bradley Barrett's try, and the intercepted pass off Kieran Read for his own try.

England's tight five also put in the hard yards, gaining on average an extra four metres per carry to the All Blacks' tight five. Joe Launchbury made 24 metres with his six ball carries, and was England's top tackler with a total of 14.

Overall the All Blacks made 103 tackles and missed 17, while England made 111 and missed 18. Top tackler for the All Blacks was Kieran Read with 11 and one assist, followed by Richie McCaw and Sam Whitelock who both made nine tackles and one assist. Read also missed the most tackles of any All Black (three).

The All Blacks conceded 13 penalties to England's 11, with eight of them coming in the first half. Read was the most penalised All Black with three (all in that first half), while England No 8 Ben Morgan conceded the most for England with two.

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Carter had a day he would rather forget, missing both penalty attempts in the first half for just a 50 percent goal kicking record, missing two tackles, and making the least number of running metres of any back on the field other than Aaron Smith. It was his first loss to England in his 10th test against them.

Owen Farrell made 11 tackles missing just one, and his 17 points with the boot saw him four points short of equalling Johnny Wilkinson's England record for individual points against the All Blacks. Farrell did, however, bring up 100 test points with his third three-pointer of the night.

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Julian Savea's first try of the night was New Zealand's 100th against England, and his second try took him to a total of 12 for the season, achieved in just nine test matches.

Debate on this article is now closed.

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