England's forwards covered themselves in glory at Eden Park with a performance captain Matt Dawson called the most committed he had ever seen. England predictably suffered their sixth successive Southern Hemisphere tour defeat. But, unlike in Dunedin, this time they gave the off-colour All Blacks a real fright.
With almost an hour gone, they trailed only 14-10 before half-time substitute Carlos Spencer cut loose and tore the tourists to shreds.
New Zealand's late flurry could not detract from a sub-standard All Blacks display which coach John Hart called "very disappointing."
England simply refused to lie down and die. Dave Sims and his second-row partner - Gloucester team-mate Rob Fidler - epitomised the team's never-say-die spirit. Garath Archer and the suspended Danny Grewcock were not missed.
England could have changed ends level if Ben Clarke's despairing try line lunge had claimed it's deserved reward.
Yet Spencer killed off all hopes of a major upset by creating tries for Jeff Wilson, Joeli Vidiri and Isitolo Maka.
England never once shirked the physical exchanges and, at times, the All Blacks were in disarray, their problems compounded by injuries to Andrew Mehrtens (groin), Anton Oliver (calf), Norm Hewitt (knee) and Ian Jones (hip), but Hart made no excuses.
"England played very well but we were very disappointing," he said. "Right now, I would say we would be third favourites for the Tri-nations series behind South Africa and Australia."
Only Spencer and two-try Wilson looked a cut above any thing England could offer.
New Zealand: C Cullen; J Wilson, M Mayerhofler, C Ralph, J Lomu; A Mehrtens, O Tonu'u; C Dowd, A Oliver, O Brown, I Jones, R Brooke, T Blackadder, T Randell, J Kronfeld. Replacements: C Spencer for Mayerhofler (40 mins); I Maka for Blackadder (50 mins); J Vidiri for Lomu (63 mins); C Hoeft for Oliver (71 mins). England: M Perry; T Beim, N Beal, J Lewsey, A Healey; J Baxendell, M Dawson; G Rowntree, R Cockerill, P Vickery, R Fidler, D Sims, B Clarke, A Diprose, P Sanderson. Replacements: T Stimpson for Beim (36 mins); P Greening for Cockerill (75 mins).
