England fightback to snatch draw

By Mark Stevens
19/11/22

England snatched a sensational draw on an evening of high drama at Twickenham after Will Stuart crossed in the dying seconds to hold New Zealand to a 25-25 stalemate.

Trailing 25-6 with nine minutes to go and a distant second best in all departments, Eddie Jones’ men - which included the Exeter Chiefs quartet of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade - exploded into life with two tries from replacement prop Stuart and full-back Freddie Steward.

Less than a minute was left on the clock when Stuart burrowed over close to the posts and with Marcus Smith converting, a hopeless situation had been rescued in the most thrilling way imaginable.

The All Blacks must now live with fresh misery inflicted by England, their defeat in the 2019 World Cup semi-final in the most recent clash between the rivals followed by this extraordinary capitulation.

Seemingly fuelled by the frustration of their 19-7 defeat in Yokohama three years, New Zealand tore into Jones’ side from the first whistle.

They led 17-3 by the interval after crossing through Dalton Papali’i and Codie Taylor, but England’s unfortunate rookie scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet helped them with a series of errors.

Rieko Ioane’s electric try with half an hour left built what appeared to be an unassailable lead, but England had other ideas in a match that was marred by the fussy refereeing of Mathieu Raynal.

At the final whistle, Jones praised his "finishers" after their stunning late comeback, saying: “"All of a sudden someone blows some magic dust, the passes start to stick and are a bit sharper. Our finishers came on and really improved the game we wanted to play."