Why England’s narrow defeat to 'best in the world' All Blacks feels more like a victory

Last week’s victory against South Africa might have suggested — so long as you didn’t see the match — that England’s desperately needed recovery was well under way. Despite a good dollop of grit, though, there wasn’t quite so much hope in the air as the numbers might have suggested.

This week, however, feels markedly different. England may not have beaten New Zealand, but there were sufficient, visible improvements that one might rightly claim them to have shaken up the world’s best good and proper.

Before the match kicked off, I was talking with former Harlequins and New Zealand fly-half Nick Evans, and he suggested the heavy rain would be a leveller — and that England would be the ones to benefit. He was right.

The first kick-off saw Brodie Retallick, the world’s best lock, mistime and fumble the ball, gifting England that prayed-for first piece of match momentum.

And England stormed through, running direct, confrontational lines with fight and precision. The handling was simple but accurate, the breakdowns hammered with enough tempo and aggression that Ardie Savea and Co were not really anywhere near stealing the ball or slowing England down, and the ball was fast.

Having quick ball and using it are two different things. Ben Youngs, whose speed of service was so rapid on Saturday that he reminded the onlooker of the great George Greegan, was in and out like a rapier pickpocket. His vision, and the subsequent pass over the top to Chris Ashton for the first try was a top-class piece of scrum-half play.

England’s pressure continued as their lineout looked crisp, their handling sharp, and Owen Farrell seemed always to have a useful choice of options as he looked to keep New Zealand guessing.

In amongst England’s purposeful attack was some of the best defence we have seen from them in over a year. John Mitchell’s appointment as defence coach looked, to many, to be an odd one. If Saturday’s performance is anything to go by, he has had an impact.

Yes, England missed far more tackles than seems acceptable, but when defending as proactively as they did, this will happen. Flying up at an opposition ball carrier and forcing him to avoid you rather than do what he ideally wanted to do — and missing him — is actually fine, so long as those around you are on the same page and are there to pick up the pieces.

This line of thinking suits particularly well the combination of Farrell and Sam Underhill. Farrell searches often for the big hit, but often misses it — and misses his man as a result. This can manifest as simple poor defence, but it can also be hugely disruptive to an attack. And Underhill fed like a starved beast on any scraps going around.

He was brutal in defence, battering backwards men who seemed not to know quite what had hit them. He attacked well, too, cutting some nice lines and continually offering himself. It was quite the performance from him, and now we all just hope he can stay fit as he is, for my money, the outstanding open-side in England.

What undid England was both the predictably renewed zeal of the All Blacks in the second half and the collapse of their lineout. Many will attribute this solely to Jamie George, who replaced Dylan Hartley at half-time. It was a punchy substitution and one that suggested that the message to George from Eddie Jones was: “You want the jersey, go and show me why I should drop my captain.”

Actually — and the same goes for last week — I didn’t think Hartley needed replacing. Anyway, the experiment didn’t work, as England threw repeatedly to the same place and Retallick earned himself a man-of-the-match medal for jumping straight up in the air repeatedly and, presumably to his amazement, seeing the ball come straight to him every time. George, a brilliant lineout thrower, was asked repeatedly by his caller to throw to the same place, despite previous thefts from Retallick. What’s that definition of insanity again?

Retallick pinched England’s momentum and the All Blacks found a way back in. Just as Underhill bamboozled Beauden Barrett and bullocked in for the try of his life, it seemed the visitors had been overwhelmed. A meandering Courtney Lawes, though, was judged to have tiptoed offside and dreams were shattered.

I thought the decision correct but still this loss felt somewhat more encouraging that last week’s win. England were edged out by the very best, but they matched them every step of the way.

Add Billy and Mako Vunipola into that team, and maybe even a sprinkling of Anthony Watson and Manu Tuilagi, and suddenly next year’s World Cup seems exciting again.