[QUOTE 2184250, member: 1314"]The team and manager were gracious in defeat and never mentioned that. I watched the game in the pub next to a morose bad-loser kiwi who kept going on about the bug. England were just superb and flustered the All Blacks.
The fact is they underestimated England.[/quote]
This^^
Youngs definitely had Smith rattled, and his decision making was pretty poor. The biggest factor was the sheer ferocity of the pack. Wood is world class, no doubt about it whatsoever: fast out of the line and smashing some pretty big hitters along the way, backed up by Cole who was, again, magnificent. He may lose the occasional scrum, but he steals ball like a Seven. The whole pack rucked like monsters. In fact, they rucked like All Blacks, which meant the Kiwis had to commit players to the breakdown.
We finally saw how the English centres can interact as well, with fewer handling errors. Some pretty sweet interaction between Tuilagi and Barritt. If Ashton could time his running onto the ball better we could have had at least one try more. That first one he fumbled he would actually have died in that corner... there were three Kiwis between him and the line. I think he knocked on to save his life!!