They’ve done it. England have finally done it.
After eight long years without any silverware to show for their efforts, England have taken out the Baskerville Shield 2-1 with a 20-10 victory over arch rivals New Zealand.
In a wet but thrilling final Test, England and New Zealand traded ascendancy with some real defensive grit and attacking flair.
The first half saw the two nations brush off the cobwebs that seemed to have dogged both teams in the first two Tests with the kind of performances fans had been expecting and waiting all series.
The introduction of Matty Smith into the English team proved a masterstroke as the halfback kicked and drilled the ball into places it hadn’t seen in the series to date. With his organisation and creative nous, the English offensive structure looked clever, creative and as the commentary team suggested, ‘full of layers’.
For the Kiwis, Jason Nightingale, having been on the receiving end of a classic Zac Hardaker cover tackle earlier on, took out his revenge on the English fullback by leaping over – yes over – what would have been another Hardaker classic to score a remarkable four pointer.
Despite heading into the break only two points ahead, England had shown enough in the first half to be confident of going on with the match.
New Zealand, however, seemed to have other ideas and once the second half was underway, began to wrestle back the momentum and began to dominate as the rain started to tumble down.
The Kiwi forwards seemed to be getting away offloads almost at will and five-eighth Peta Hiku’s running at the line was proving threatening each time he did it.
But somehow, the English defence held on.
Finally getting the ball, England made their possession count with a second try to Elliott Whitehead off of some nice lead up play. England had pick-pocketed the momentum back and were full of running.
It wasn’t long before captain, Sean O’Loughlin, stormed over with a brilliantly motivating solo charge to take the English side to a 20-6 lead with 10 minutes to go.
And then the unthinkable almost happend.
Off of a James Graham fumble from the kick-off, New Zealand hit back with a try to fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Issac Luke’s failed conversion kept the pressure on the Kiwis but they scored a few minutes later courtesy of centre Jordan Kahu. Again, Luke failed with the conversion and the score remained at 20-14 in favour of England.
Getting their heads back into the right space, England held off this belated New Zealand fightback to win the match, the series and the Baskerville Shield.
There was much to like about this English performance and their victory over the world number one will do wonders for English rugby league.
Commiserations to New Zealand but well played England.
Mamma
Guest
Quoting ABBA from 1976 doesn't equate to analysis unless like Carthar above u assume they played the national anthem at the Sweden v Norway RL international in front of 20,00 rabid fans in Stockholm just the other day. If you watched the game and listened to the local commentators even they thought the reffing was ordinary. And why have a local ref when the Aussie ref was in the grandstand - beggars belief. Can anyone give me an explanation..
Mamma
Guest
I don't think the local commentators call ourselves "we" when commentating on the broad international game in Australia - ie Aust vrs NZ. I assume ur from Queensland so that explains not only your comments but everything...
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
My only real response to that Niall is that you've got to start somewhere.
Russ
Guest
"I've been cheated by you ,since I don't know when So I made up my mind, it must come to an end Look at me now, will I ever learn I don't know how, but I suddenly lose control There's a fire within my soul" Get a grip, get a life, "The refs a cheat! off side! forward! Penalty!" is the mantra of the team not playing well enough and/or a misery with an axe to grind and a supermarket full of dismal merchandise to sell.
Niall
Guest
Point taken, Sleiman. France and Wales should have done better. Clubs don't help though, pulling top players out. Russ, I'm not sure what your point is. I will always maintain that international teams packed full of heritage players are no good for rugby league. People are not raised as Scottish-Englishmen or Scottish-Australians, so I find the practice of placing Australian and English born and raised players into these on the basis that their Nana or Grandad had a summer holiday in the highlands completely unfair to the countries that have made an effort to develop our sport. There are exceptions, Lebanon, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga use plenty of heritage players but many people in Australasia are raised as Lebanese-Australians, Samoan- Kiwis, Fijian-Queenslanders. The people in the mother countries can connect with these players. The embedded rivalry in the British Isles will never allow a team of English players representing Scotland to be taken seriously, especially in our sport which is still growing.
Russ
Guest
Sad that no one can see the ref for the trees! You and by this I mean Aussies are obsessed with refs! Now this would be understandable in any country that hadn't come up with Darcy Lawler. Sadly there was no bias, or particularly bad decisions just some different interpretations a few of which were due to SL rules v NRL rules v international rules rather than anything else. I found the middle game the least interesting of the three and it was the one where the wrestle played a more significant role and these could be connected? However, it was also the one where I thought the Kiwis were less effective overall and certainly more negative.
Russ
Guest
Cathar treize you are brilliant, a report in Norwegian on an RL game in Norway, just so good! Now which junction of the M62 motorway can we find these two teams? And are people so "blessed" they an explanation of why an upset is an upset? "This is because one team has not done so well in the recent past and the other has done very well indeed!" I blame the Australian education system! Who writes this stuff, Hamish Blake, Carl Barron or Shaun Micallef?
Russ
Guest
In the land of the blind(yawn) the one eyed man is king!
Russ
Guest
Why do you answer such BS posts Sleiman? The idea that Niall cares about RL origins or heritage is as much a piece of fiction as a vicar's son from Salford picking up a ball and running with it in contravention of the rules at the time and inventing one of the most tedious sports to be foisted on humanity or that conservative politicians anywhere care about the poor!
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
I take your point and I agree that the qualification should have come from a tournament closer in time to the next Four Nations. But then, with their born and bread rugby league players, either France and Wales should have won that tournament instead of Scotland.
Richard Maybury
Guest
At last, another Aussie that credits Tomkins with a bit of abilty. He didn't have the best of runs at the Worries and maybe a different NRL club would have brought out the best in him but he wasn't that bad. He was a victim of hype and the inflated dollars he was brought over on but that wasn't his fault. Ask McNamara, he would have had in him in the England side in a heart beat if he had been fit - that speaks volumes of itself.
Niall
Guest
Scotland are not even a 'minnow'. There are no Scottish rugby league players. They are English and Australian reserve-graders masquerading as Scotland RL. Frances and Wales have born and bread rugby league players. They are also professional players, not park footballers.
Richard Maybury
Guest
Jethro, I suggest you sit back sometime and listen to our commentators. They are more highly biased than any I have ever heard. Very Australia sided in internationals and pro any Sydney club in the national competition particularly Channel 9. I don't mind it too much but it does get nauseating when it goes over the top. I thought that the BBC wasn't too bad all things considered.
Johnno
Guest
Niall, Scot's/Irish no RL players. Scotland got the European spot at next years 2016 4-nations, not France. Scotland will get a crack at the "Big 3" next year. And the way to help the minnows get better is playing the big teams. Cricket haven't worked that out, rugby is slowly working that out. Agree about the venues for this series, they got some of em wrong. I know London got a good crowd 45K, but I'd of preferred if they'd of played that 2nd-Test at Man City's home ground, or Leeds. No problems with Hull/Wigan hosting Tests.
Mamma
Guest
Nearly a remarkable win choreographed by a ref who had some penalty favours to give. NZ couldn't get a decision all game and then towards the end couldn't do a thing wrong - where are the Emmy's or Tony's
Mamma
Guest
BBC does the internationals and Sky does the Super league pretty much. .Still a biased referee - unbelievable
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
Amen to that. I loved watching the tests when GB had a team that could compete with the likes of Hanley and Gregory. You could watch a test and not be sure who would win. The series of processions that happened regularly in the late 90's and on, with 40 point floggings was no good for anybody and especially not the game of league overall. I would love to see league become strong internationally and then we might get the AFL guys to shut up with the "my games bigger than your game" guff. I like both and want both to be strong, but it does get tiresome.
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
Mike, the Kiwis may have oen professional league team but that is the tip of the iceberg. Every NRL club would have at least two or three Kiwi's on their roster. My team the Panthers have Whare, Taylor and DWZ just in first grade. The juniors are chock full of players eligible to play for NZ. Super league is also full of foreign players, Aussies, French and Kiwis to name a few. The Kiwis do not struggle for players.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Nerv I would value at least 15 NRL players in front of Tomkins as a fullback. I think he should be a 6, but given he cant tackle a weet bix that would be a problem. He is like Maloney. I thought RTS was outstanding in the series. The ground was very wet in all games which is why you did not see him side stepping players.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Should be more recycling of the ball and more phases crabwise across the field hey Zero Gain.Not enough penalty goals perhaps. Of course Nightingale's incredible try at the end of a passing move,was a one out. True code colours show out like the proverbial.