Firstly, let me congratulate England on a commendable performance. Their locks were decimated by injury – even during the match – they were without their talisman player in the centres and quite a few frontline players were missing and they still dominated the set piece and looked to be finishing as the much stronger team.

It started off with an electrifying run from Johhny May. In previous Test appearances May has reminded me of the 1980s video game Frogger. There are few better sights in rugby for me than a winger in full flight.

May made Conrad Smith a bystander and Israel Dagg left him far too much room on the outside and England got off to the perfect start.

New Zealand’s passive defence allows teams to get a roll on and build some continuity. Owen Farrell put in a kick that went far too long early on but quickly adjusted and England started emulating the Australian and South African teams and kept the ball in hand.

Even when in possession, the lack of New Zealand players protecting the ball allows the opposition to crowd in and over the ball and it becomes easier to get away with a few things at the breakdown as the players are allowed to come forward over the ball.

England, as a result, dominated possession and if Kyle Eastmond’s beautifully-worked pass had found Mike Brown on the wing, a step inside could well have avoided the covering Julian Savea and England would have been two tries up.

The fact that England had turned down points and went for the corner instead of the kickable three points psychologically allowed New Zealand to think they had scored their own points.

It was pleasing for me to see Kyle Eastmond have a good game, doing a very handy job of containing Sonny Bill Williams. If his pass had been taken by Brown, it might well have been a different ball game.

I thought Eastmond was harshly treated after the third Test defeat after putting in a very useful performance in the first, and being asked to cover too much space as the English forwards were sucked into rucks. A short defence will always be exposed if you cannot commit numbers in the centre of the field to cut off the supply of possession.

Robshaw should look back on that decision to not go for goal and question it. England were indeed in the ascendancy at that moment, but so early in a Test match, all you need to do is keep ticking the scoreboard over and applying pressure through accumulating points. You need to have a long-term vision, instead of thinking you have to win the game in the first fifteen minutes.

New Zealand obviously gained a lot of confidence from keeping England out from a second score. Just like a poker player who makes a good lay-down, the New Zealand team started to build momentum.

I thought New Zealand had kicked away too much ball away and England were doing a good job of reclaiming the high ball sent their way. Ben Smith, however, showed how dangerous it is to defend against a team who retains possession after a high kick.

The defensive line has to adjust and Jerome Kaino made good use of attacking the weak shoulder of Courtney Lawes and broke through two tacklers and set up quick ball. It appeared that Cruden, after running from deep and attacking the advantage line, was held short and he seemed to roll the ball forward.

Nigel Owens was right there and awarded the try, and something suggests to me he would’ve taken another look, just like he did with the Charlie Faumuina try, if it had happened later in the game.

Cruden’s goal kicking demons quickly returned, and he missed a conversion as well as a penalty. The fact that Barrett looked even worse must be of concern to Hansen and explains Daniel Carter’s imminent start against Scotland. Carter can miss kicks, but his lows are nowhere near as bad as the other two.

Colin Slade is a handy goal kicking option, but a maximum of three flyhalves are all Hansen can take, which means a fit Carter will be preferred in the tight games. The question is can he remain fit?

I also wonder about Grant Fox in his advisory role. Foxy had an immaculate kicking style and Cruden and Barrett have never been classical conventional kickers. Could he be trying to ‘improve’ their action, and if so is this doing more harm than good? In Super rugby, Cruden and Barrett have good kicking records. Test rugby is a big step up in the pressure stakes, but I cannot remember such woeful attempts by either player in the past.

England had momentum with both possession and the penalty count. Owens got a call from the touch judge by a late charge from Dylan Hartley on Cruden and New Zealand kicked a vaulable penalty goal to stem the tide. Sean Fitzpatrick said it was a harsh call but in Test rugby you sometimes get the rub of the green and when you do you have to make it count.

England had dominated but with New Zealand’s slim chances they were only three points behind. Sonny Bill Williams broke through the line and it was to be the first of a couple of line breaks where New Zealand should have scored and probably Williams was arguably the culprit each time.

I think Sam Cane would be a good partner for Sonny Bill Williams in that he can get there in time to be the support man. Sonny Bill always looks to get the offload away in the tackle, but later in the match he had a man inside him who needed to get the ball. On this occasion a sloppy offload went to nobody, and instead of setting up another phase, the opportunity went begging.

More points went begging as Richie McCaw couldn’t quite take a cricket-like catch from Mike Brown’s poor effort and Ben Smith was in for all money as there was no English cover and he showed what he can do in full flight.

Owen Farrell did his part to leave points out in the middle with a failed drop goal attempt. It just missed but there was no pressure on him and when you give up the chance to get more points, you have to be clinical and take your chances.

Farrell has been struggling with fitness, but he showed what an asset he is as a goal kicker. However, there is debate in England whether he is attacking enough with ball in hand.

The move to inside centre later in the game suggests Stuart Lancaster might still be undecided with his centre pairing and flyhalf. In the knockout games a reliable goal kicker is a must but so too is a flyhalf who can control a game and work your team into attacking positions.

Owens showed he was not willing to have players go off their feet or not have their weight supported when contesting for ball. Robshaw and McCaw were quickly penalised in succession and England went into the halftime break three points ahead.

It was a strange situation as England were deserving half time leaders, but they would’ve been frustrated that they were not leading by more. New Zealand had lived off scraps and managed to stay in the hunt but they had only shown glimpses of what they could do on attack. Part of that is that they were starved of continuity and New Zealand were often on the backfoot.

The break seemed to do New Zealand a world of good. I question the tactics of England as there seemed to be a definite shift in their strategy. They started to work lineout mauls but well inside their own half. Danny Care started putting up box kick after box kick and New Zealand started to get far more possession, looking more comfortable with ball in hand.

Their passive defence also vanished and they started attacking the line more. Brodie Retallick is a menace with ball in hand but Patrick Tuipulotu and later Charlie Faumuina make a noticeable impact on defence. The latter might have question marks over his scrumming technique but he is very good at close-quarters defence.

It is debatable how much more taxing it is to be more aggressive in the line and commit greater numbers to rucks and how long New Zealand are able to sustain that type of game and how much a passive defence early on enables them to operate aerobically using that strategy.

What is clear is that New Zealand looked evidently more comfortable playing like that and they were able to control the rhythm of the game much more. Cruden missed a penalty goal after Owens marched him back a vital metre or two after he overstepped the mark but a mistake from the replacement lock, George Kruis, who rushed up early in the line to take Sam Whitelock and left a gaping hole for Kieran Read to exploit with Owen Franks.

They got quick ball and England were badly exposed out to the left. Israel Dagg almost made a complete hash of it and delayed his pass unnecessarily, and by that time Richie McCaw was too flat. He took the pass and dotted down but it was a reflection of how flat New Zealand had been in attack for large parts of the game.

The game noticeably opened up and New Zealand prospered. A charge-down from an Eastmond kick and Rokoduguni did well to clean up the ball and then Sam Whitelock pounced when he saw the ball on the line although Owens and the TMO ruled that the ball had come forward.

If the Cruden try was debatable, this was another case where you questioned the final decision. Whitelock was convinced it was a fair score but this again is where you have to wipe that from your mind and go with the referee’s decision.

These are things that can happen in the knockout games. More was to follow after Dylan Hartley pulled Dane Coles back from a ruck and the New Zealand hooker made an ill-advised lash out with his boot collecting an England player on the deck.

I actually don’t have a problem with Nigel Owens overturning the advice of the TMO and giving Coles a yellow card. It’s probably a good thing that Coles learns that you can’t react like that in a game. You have to keep your discipline. I would’ve preferred that Owens had a word to Hartley but players can’t take the law into their own hands with a punch or a kick, no matter under what kind of provocation.

You can bet Hartley will come away from that game with the memory of getting one over his rival. What he did was niggly but it’s no different from holding a jersey at the ruck or pinning a player down. This happens all the time and you have to remain cool-headed. Coles failed to do that and I hope like the Ben Franks swinging arm at Ellis Park, he is chewed out by Hansen and the senior players for it.

New Zealand have shown this year that hot heads can bring about yellow cards but wise old heads can limit the damage done. Once again, the opposition failed to capitalise on the man advantage. New Zealand actually looked stronger and it could be argued England were lucky only to come away from that ten-minute spell three points down.

Barrett made an ugly miss with his first attempt but made no mistake with the next attempt. This was when the heavens decided to open and it seemed as though not only New Zealand were punishing England.

Much is made of the difficult Northern Hemisphere conditions and how inclement weather can be a great leveller. But New Zealand showed that they are capable of carrying out ABC rugby in atrocious conditions. It wasn’t perfect. Julian Savea spilled a ball close to the line relieving pressure at the wrong moment but on the whole this was where England were taken out of the game and New Zealand not only took up vital minutes on the clock but systematically worked their way to the line and Charlie Faumuina seized upon a ball and cleverly burrowed his way under.

Nigel Owens was on the spot and ruled the try was good. Then we had the farcical situation where Barrett is lining up the conversion and then Owens steps in and says let’s take another look.

I am in favour of the ref making his own decision as he did with the yellow card, but I am certainly against a referee second-guessing himself and then still awarding the try. To me it just undermines the authority of the ref and puts into question whether he was swayed by the home crowd.

I am not suggesting that was the case, but I don’t like the ref putting himself in the position where that line of reasoning can be taken. He was in a position to rule on the Cruden try and he was in a position to rule on the Faumuina try.

Another woeful kick was taken by Barrett and England were still in the hunt. They suddenly got a few scrums and they showed their dominance. In a way their dominance was their undoing.

I can only surmise that Robshaw thought a scrum might result in a yellow card instead of the penalty try they came away with. When there is three minutes on the clock, the last thing you want to do is to have a scrum when you need to score two tries to win the game.

They may have embarrassed the New Zealand pack but the repeated scrums allowed New Zealand to soak up time and you might well argue that they were lucky to escape with a yellow card for not retreating ten or collapsing the scrum but in the end it didn’t matter.

England needed to score quickly and then give themselves enough time in horrible conditions to work their way down the other end of the park. New Zealand had did enough to win the game and like England in 2003 in New Zealand, they weren’t shy to infringe knowing England had to score two tries.

This is where the experience of New Zealand shows and where England have to improve. England moved away from the tactics that were working for them in the first half and New Zealand clawed back control of the game and did enough to give themselves a cushion. It was a slower but equally methodical version of the second Test in June. That England came back stronger in the end was more a question of intensity and New Zealand knowing they had a cushion.

In order to really place New Zealand under pressure, you have to get your nose ahead on the scoreboard and have them make the play. That’s where the mistakes come from as the England captain found out on full time with a knock-on.

It wasn’t a classic Test match but it was certainly a compelling one. New Zealand will potentially play again on that ground, if all goes well, in the semi-final. They showed today that they can take the game by the scruff of its neck and control the game to their liking if necessary.

England showed that they have huge depth and a pack that is rock solid in the set piece. What they are missing is experience and decision-making at the right times. There is still enough time for them to learn important lessons but I get the feeling that 2015 might be a year or two too soon for this England side and the Japan World Cup is where potentially they will be much nearer their peak.

Some will argue that New Zealand are slipping from their peak and this has been evident throughout the year. I am not so sure as there is night and day between the likes of Brisbane and Auckland and this team’s ability to play consistently likes somewhere in the middle of these two performances.

That is not to say teams like the Wallabies and Springboks have not improved this year and have no further room for improvement not to mention that England are not worthy adversaries. The opposite is evidently clear.

Yet increasingly I have the feeling that there is still improvement for New Zealand and the pack are definitely closing but learning to win most of these tight games is an important trick to know. Obviously knockout rugby can see the favourite get knocked out. New Zealand know this too well.

Some argued that New Zealand would have a blowout against a second-string looking England side. I am actually happy that did not prove to be the case. Winning by plenty may make a powerful statement but it has the effect of sending a team back to the drawing board.

England will come away today frustrated at not building on a great start. They fell away in the second half and came back too late. They will nonetheless feel not in awe of this New Zealand side. That, in turn, will make New Zealand guarded and keep their heads down in training. Nothing like feeling the hot breath of the chasing pack to think up ways to clear ahead.