England breaking All Black myth; Rugby 365

The All Blacks reputation as the Invincibles of world rugby has been severely tested by England in their last few meetings. After amassing 15 consecutive Test victories, the All Blacks came very close to stumbling in their 20-15 victory over the English on the weekend. It was Stuart Lancaster's men who were the last team to dish out defeat to the New Zealanders in December 2012. England prop Joe Marler admits to once being duped by the All Blacks myth, but it was the agony of coming so close that has exposed the their vulnerability for him. Lancaster's tourists outplayed their opponents for much of the weekends game until the final minutes when Conrad Smith was able to take advantage of a quick-tap penalty and score the match-winning try. Marler now insists England will attempt to level the series knowing that the World Cup holders can be toppled. "From a personal point of view I probably had the idea in my head that they're invincible," the loosehead told a press conference in New Zealand. "I've always looked on the All Blacks as year-on-year the best team in the world. "When you break it down and look at them as individuals and collectively, there are 15 blokes on a field trying to do the same as you. "We went into the game at Eden Park having spent the build-up trying to get rid of this All Black myth or aura of how they are invincible. "We respect them as a team, know they have several world-class players and know they are world champions. "But Saturday helped us even further. Now we can go toe-to-toe with these guys and if we want to win we need to go that extra step." England's approach to the game has been labeled as one that deliberately slowed things down in a bid to reduce the tempo of the match and disrupt the New Zealanders. Local media claimed these tactics were being employed due to England's inferior conditioning, However Marler regards the claim as "nonsense". "We want to play at a high tempo and we showed that in the Six Nations when we took France, Ireland and Wales on at that sort of game," he said. "Of course they've come out and said we slow the game down. I didn't see them running to any of the scrums or line-outs quicker than us. It's not a tactic of ours to slow the game down. "As a spectator or a neutral you'd probably look at it and say it wasn't a great game to watch because there were a lot of dropped balls and set-pieces. "That's why the game was slow. It's nonsense."

Good Job England, well done...yes you have broken the myth.... ah wait a minute the ABs won that game... & the fourteen before it 

 JW it was a ref assisted win as were many of the previous fourteen. It's the reason I advise poor saSUE sans any sense that to trot out the abs winning record is meaningless.
You oaks were whipped by England B - FACT.
Can the wee abs arrest this decline. 
How much longer will nz be able to count on a ref to win the game for them is the other question. Opposition is building. 
NZ have overplayed their hand.  The cat is out of the bag. 

 Struck a RAW nerve there JW. Hasbeeno hasn't replied......think he's at his Latin class still!

Looks like it Moola, lol Although I think I can hear the grinding of gears as Beeno plots his come back line  

 England will be even tougher to beat this week. The All Blacks have to gain momentum and open the field up, combined with an accurate kicking game to get Jane,  B Smith and Savea more contestable ball. 
All Blacks will scrap past, another tough one. 

 Oaks I have been busy and have also overlooked these attempts at chirps.
Enjoy the game kiwis and try not to get too upset if you dont win. It's something you will have to get used to. 
JW putting kbbs in their place is what I do - it comes naturally.  
Post match wee abs and Boks is going to be fun. Who would have thought Meyer would go down this road!  Here I have been talking about the decline of the wee abs and the need to renew and here we are fielding an old side with old matfiled as captain. It's a nightmare! 

Slowing the game down ? Inferior conditioning ?Your Press do talk rubbish and are rude. We played at pace, equal to yours. Just accept that and get a life for goodness sake !
I very much doubt we will win either remaining Test, but we are doing alright. Not fading as a force, building nicely  

england did slow the pace down, but didnt have the ticker to keep up doing the job.

a lot of the talk has been about englands solid performance and it was, they were the better team on the day, but they still lost.

does anyone think that hansen has been business as usual at the All Blacks camp???
hell no, hes been working the asses of the All Blacks and building them close to beserker rage.

i called weeks earlier a very close test for the first game and said it was englands best chance for a win explaining all the factors and what not in detail.

now IMO the english are in for a rude awakening , their top team may be playing, but its going be a big All Black win, fingers crossed aye,

Speaking of "ref assisted games" - anyone watch the Brazil - Croatia match? What a debacle. Brazil was my sentimental favorite to win the Cup in their own country but not sure they deserve it after that. 
Good thing I had Neymar as my fantasy captain though !

Our top team are not playing at all. Don't say they are when they are not.
You know full well who and what won you that match so stop talking yourselves up and accept it like I would have done if the roles had been reversed. 
I said all along we most likely would not win a match, what's new there ? But as long as we built the Squad, I would be happy, especially under the circumstances. 
 

@becs,

i sure do know who won us that match, conrad smith when he scored the only try of the match, and vito when ur tired english  forwards couldnt do anything to stop him from contesting the ball which ended up with england penalised for holding securing the All Blacks win.
when all else fails, play the fitness card its the one feat of physical prowess ive never seen anyone match the All Blacks in.

and save the boohoo blame the refs for the saffas, cos thats their national anthem and im too tired to laugh in ur face,

thats pretty much englands top team IMO, who would u have playing???
All Blacks dont have daniel carter, keirean read and israel dagg, so i guess the All Blacks dont have thier top team either, funny its not paraded that way in every other post though???

 Becs take no notice of the ou saSUE. The big tradgedy in saSUE's life is that the poster he most admired, Storming ED didnt stay around to teach him the game.
He has a vivid imagination and doesnt let the facts interfere! 
Dan is a bit over-the-hill saSUE, Read doesnt like the hard stuff so is safely out of the way and Dagg's form hasnt been great.
Your team may be better for it.
What is pretty certain is that England should be better. It could be a long afternoon for the wee abs! 
Englands biggest challenge is keeping 15 men on the field

No, our challenge is building a team for 2015. That is our aim. And to get our injured players fit again !  

And Sas..heard of Corbisiero and Cole to name but two ? Best leave you know all's to it, hadn't I ?  

 Meanwhile the ABS try to win EVERY game ,not just a 4 yearly comp.15 on the trot and 1 loss since the last RWC is no myth despite what beandork might imagine [ he actualy thought that the Boks won against the ABS in 2012 !!!]This I know for a fact .