England draws with All Blacks from 25-6 down at Twickenham

LONDON (AP) — England conjured a remarkable three-try finale to draw with New Zealand 25-25 at Twickenham on Saturday.

The All Blacks were a class above in building a 25-6 lead with 10 minutes to go.

But a yellow card to New Zealand fullback Beauden Barrett and a try in the same movement to England replacement prop Will Stuart breathed life back into English hopes with eight minutes to go.

England snapped off long-range tries by fullback Freddie Steward and a second for Stuart with a minute to go to snatch a thrilling.

“We hung in there a lot and you always get your turn to attack, and we had our turn at the end,” England coach Eddie Jones said. "We put in some of the things we have worked on — running straighter, attacking gaps, quicker support play, and it was fantastic.

“A draw is OK.”

It's only the second draw in the teams' history, after a 26-26 in 1997 on the same ground.

New Zealand was dominant on both sides of the ball for most of the teams' first meeting since it was handed its worst Rugby World Cup defeat in the 2019 semifinals.

New Zealand bolted to 14-0 after nine minutes and had another try disallowed. They went into halftime a deserved 17-3 ahead and was bossing England physically and at pace.

Then Rieko Ioane bagged New Zealand's third try and Barrett underlined their control by chipping a dropped goal.

But moments later, Barrett was in the sin-bin for committing a professional foul on his tryline. England exploited the space to tie the score. But with all the momentum and a man advantage, England wasn’t interested in going for the win when Marcus Smith kicked out the restart to end the match.

“It was the right decision,” England captain Owen Farrell said.

Jones agreed, and was happier to see his flyhalf in the last 10 minutes turn into the natural attacker he's known as.

“I liked the change in his attitude," Jones said. “Marcus sometimes is not as aggressive as he should be, and when he became aggressive at the end he was absolutely outstanding.”

The Twickenham crowd was whipped up before kickoff by video highlights of the 2019 triumph, a light show, and singing to drown out the haka.

But New Zealand flew out of the blocks with converted tries by flanker Dalton Papali'i from an intercept and hooker Codie Taylor from a lineout maul.

It looked like it was going to be 21-0 after Ioane scored between the posts but the try was dismissed on review after he was caught doing a neck roll on Farrell.

Instead, it became 14-3 after a Farrell goalkick from a scrum penalty. England's toehold was brief, though.

The All Blacks forwards fronted up and pushed England back to its tryline but could take away only three points at the end of a stop-start half.

“It didn't feel like we were far off,” Farrell said, “just one or two percent. But against New Zealand that's a lot.”

England needed to score first in the new half and did through a penalty by Smith after Farrell carried a sore leg in his 100th England test.

Wing Caleb Clarke made a try-saving tackle on Manu Tuilagi, then lock Brodie Retallick, playing his 100th All Blacks test, jolted the ball from Sam Simmonds in the 22. The visitors countered quickly.

The All Blacks were keeping England guessing with their kicking game and Richie Mo'unga kicked crossfield to Clarke, who let Ioane steam away up the left touchline and score for 22-6.

England was back on attack again only to concede another penalty when Maro Itoje was thrown across the lineout by his own lifters.

Down the other end, Barrett knocked over the dropped goal for 25-6 and they were cruising. Then he was in the sin-bin and New Zealand binned the win.

“I came off the field and I was smiling; 20 to go, up by 14, boys are bringing it home,” New Zealand's Aaron Smith said. “Then bang, bang, bang. England did well to take it back and we did well to give it to them. That's hard to swallow.”

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