All Blacks' Winning Streak Ended

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/sports/rugby/03iht-rugby03.html

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TWICKENHAM, ENGLAND — New Zealand’s All Blacks are used to rewriting rugby’s record books, just not in the way that happened when their unbeaten streak came to a crashing end with a 38-21 loss here to England.

Only a late try by winger Julian Savea, his 12th in nine career matches, let New Zealand avoid its biggest loss ever, a 28-7 loss to Australia in 1999.

But this was still its heaviest ever loss to an opponent from Europe, overtaking a 22-8 loss to France in 1994. It also was New Zealand’s worst loss ever to a British team, supplanting England’s first victory, 13-0, in 1936. Before Saturday, England had won only six times in the series, the last time in Wellington in June 2003.

“We don’t have any excuse. We just got beaten by a better side,” said New Zealand coach Steve Hansen of his first defeat in 14 matches since he succeeded Graham Henry after the All Blacks won the World Cup on home soil last year.

Hansen and All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who played his last match before starting a six-month break from the game, refused to attribute the poor play to a stomach bug that the squad was battling over the previous week.

The loss ended two remarkable runs for the All Blacks. New Zealand had not been beaten over its past 20 matches, including the World Cup. It also had won 28 straight matches on international play on European soil, going back to a 31-28 loss in November 2002, also to England at Twickenham.

The man who did the most damage was someone who might slip unnoticed into any New Zealand team.

Manu Tuilagi is Samoan by birth, but instead of following large numbers of his rugby-playing compatriots to New Zealand, he went to England as a 13-year-old, following older brothers who were playing as professionals in English leagues.

He is 21, one of several young players that England coach Stuart Lancaster hopes will be playing international rugby “for the next seven, eight, nine years.”

Even if he does, it is hard to imagine he will ever have a better short stretch of play than he did between the 51st and 58th minutes on Saturday. During those seven minutes, he successively passed to his fellow center, Brad Barritt, for a try; made the break that created a try for wing Chris Ashton; and then intercepted a loose pass and ran 50 meters to score himself.

Tuilagi’s dominance in that short span transformed a precarious 15-14 lead for England into a conclusive 32-14 advantage.

It was all the more devastating because it came immediately after a two-try burst from the New Zealanders, with scores from Savea and forward Kieran Read. Those scores all but erased the 15-point lead England had built steadily from the foot of outside half Owen Farrell, who landed four penalties and a drop goal.

“They put pressure on us, they forced mistakes and kept the scoreboard ticking over,” McCaw said. “They made opportunities and took them, which made it a pretty tough game for us.”

“This was still a pretty good year for the All Blacks,” said Hansen, whose team remains atop the world rankings by a wide margin.

“This is way beyond what we hoped for,” Lancaster said. “We always had belief, attitude and character, but today we got the top six inches right as well.

“It gives the public a sense that we are going in the right direction.”

England’s women concluded a memorable weekend over New Zealand, completing a three-match sweep of the World Champion Black Ferns by beating them, 32-23, in a clash here after the men’s match.

While Twickenham was exultant, Cardiff was desolate after Wales completed a miserably fruitless autumn campaign by going down, 14-12, to Australia. Wales’ defeat was sealed in the final 30 seconds when outside-half Kurtley Beale rounded off a long-range counterattack for the game’s only try.

“It was a great test match to finish the year,” said Australia’s coach, Robbie Deans.

It was the sixth time Australia has beaten Wales in little more than a year. The combined margin of all six victories is 22 points.

“We were pretty gutted,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland of his team’s seventh consecutive loss over all. “We put ourselves in a position where we should have won.”

Wales captain Sam Warburton called it, “The worst defeat I’ve ever been involved in.”

The defeat dropped Wales from No.7 to No.9 in the world rankings. So despite being the reigning European champion and a semifinalist at the last World Cup, Wales will drop into the third group of seeds — meaning it could be stuck against both New Zealand and England — when the draw for the 2015 World Cup is made on Monday afternoon.

Argentina, a World Cup semifinalist in 2007, will move up into the second seeds at the expense of Wales.