England suffer second-half collapse

Steve McNamara
12 April 2012

England experienced a bitter-sweet warm-up for the Four Nations Series after letting slip an 18-0 half-time lead against the New Zealand Maori to draw 18-18 at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium.

Steve McNamara's team were in total control after producing an impressive opening 40 minutes but they buckled under a tremendous Maori fightback and in the end were left hanging on for a draw.

It would have been an embarrassing defeat had stand-off Arana Taumata been successful with a last-minute drop goal attempt but England managed to charge down the kick to spare their blushes.

England played most of the match without new captain Adrian Morley, who was withdrawn after just 12 minutes as a precaution after taking a knock to his upper arm, and his loss eventually took its toll. With Sam Tomkins a constant threat at half-back, with his trademark yellow boots seemingly all over the pitch, England bossed the game from the start.

It took England 20 minutes to open the scoring, offloads from Eorl Crabtree and Gareth Ellis creating the space for Sam Tomkins to get centre Ryan Atkins over for a well-worked try.

Another audacious Crabtree offload enabled lively substitute Luke Robinson to get Sam Tomkins racing away for a second try on 27 minutes and, with the final move of the first half, Robinson's pace off the mark created an easy score for loose forward Sean O'Loughlin.

Widdop's three conversions made it 18-0 and the visitors looked set to continue in the same vein when Ben Westwood was denied a try early in the second half by a double movement before the Maori began their comeback against a tiring England.

Loose forward Bodene Thompson finished off a flowing move on 52 minutes and 10 minutes later hooker Aaron Heremaia collected a kick from Castleford half-back Rangi Chase to grab a second try, which was converted by Locke.

The lead was down to just two points eight minutes from the end when Chase's speculative kick from a scrum deep inside the Maori half caused all sorts of problems for Widdop and Taumata claimed a third try.

As England clung to their tenuous lead, Tom Briscoe and Robinson came up with crucial ball steals to keep the rampant Maori at bay but, when Ellis was pulled up for interference at the play-the-ball, Locke levelled the scores with a penalty.

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