Ford was the mastermind behind a 10th consecutive victory for Steve Borthwick\u2019s men but there were standout performers across the team, including Alex Mitchell, centres Fraser Dingwall and Ollie Lawrence, and Ben Earl.<\/p>\n
It took time for the pre-match favourites to find their stride but upon seizing lead for the first time through Underhill\u2019s 44th-minute try they were always in command, even in the face of an All Blacks uprising.<\/p>\n
It was England\u2019s first win over New Zealand at Twickenham since 2012 and their only success against their rivals since the 2019 World Cup.<\/p>\n
And the parallels with the 19-7 semi-final rout six years ago were clear after the haka was faced with a U-shape formation resembling the challenge laid down in Yokohama.<\/p>\n
There was much to admire about England\u2019s first-half but the familiar failing of chances going unconverted was costly, as were their defensive frailties and malfunctioning line-out.<\/p>\n
New Zealand, meanwhile, delivered a lesson in the art of finishing in the first quarter, their two visits to the home 22 producing two tries in three minutes.<\/p>\n
On both occasions England\u2019s wide defence was exposed with Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku sliding under a tackle to score near the left corner before Codie Taylor darted over after the midfield had been scythed open by a skilfully executed backs move.<\/p>\n
An early 12-0 deficit was the harsh reality facing England given they had started brightly with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso lively, Dingwall forcing a gap and Ford producing a huge spiral bomb.<\/p>\n
Freddie Steward departed with a head injury to usher Marcus Smith on to the field and the full-back was soon involved as Earl launched a counter-attack that ended with Feyi-Waboso being stopped close to the line.<\/p>\n
English ambition was rewarded in the 25th minute when Ollie Lawrence marauded over from a scrum strike move, breaking two tackles before touching down with an outstretched arm.<\/p>\n
Two quick drop-goals by Ford made the interval deficit just 12-11 and when Taylor was sin-binned for handling on the floor, England struck by upping the tempo with Sam Underhill executing the decisive carry after Mitchell had almost crossed.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks scrum was shoved backwards and Ford had a try ruled out for a knock on as the wins began to pile up for the hosts, with Dingwall\u2019s 55th-minute try confirming the tide had turned.<\/p>\n
Dingwall pounced after Lawrence had sucked in two defenders in a line-out move and then on came the bomb squad of Lions forwards to make matters worse for New Zealand.<\/p>\n
But they hit back when Jordan swept over after Earl had been sent to the sin-bin and with the game back in the balance, it was England who responded with greater composure as a Ford penalty and Tom Roebuck try sealed a famous win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ford was the mastermind behind a 10th consecutive victory for Steve Borthwick\u2019s men but there were standout performers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-141704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}