6 Nov 2006

All Blacks too good for England

7:09 am on 6 November 2006

The All Blacks were too good for England beating the homeside 41-20 in their opening rugby union match at Twickenham this morning.

The All Blacks were leading 13-5 after an early Aaron Mauger try but further scores by Joe Rokocoko and Carl Hayman and a 54-metre penalty by Dan Carter put them 28-5 clear at the break.

England, roared on by a record 82,000 crowd, hit back in the second half when Ben Cohen and debutant halfback Shaun Perry added to Jamie Noon's first-half score.

But a superb try by Carter, who claimed 26 points in all, kept the dominant All Blacks in control. But captain Richie McCaw says their second half game wasn't that great.

"Yeah it was a good start, did well in the first half, we put a few good tries on, perhaps in the second half sat back a wee bit, but it was pretty pleasing."

The result was England's heaviest-ever margin of defeat at Twickenham and takes their run of losses to six, their worst run for 34 years, while it is a great boost for New Zealand ahead of their two tests against France.