Kiwis run close as O'Loughlin shows valour

New Zealand made it three wins out of three on their British tour, but it was by no means as convincing as the final scoreline suggested.

It was only a flurry of three tries in the last eight minutes that made it look as though the Kiwis had been in control, when the reality for most of the match was very different.

When the British captain, Sean O'Loughlin, broke brilliantly out of his own half and fed Chev Walker, who had the momentum to slide over the line in a two-man tackle, and Danny Tickle landed his fourth goal, the Kiwis' lead was down to four points.

"I thought we were on a roll at 16-12," the England A coach, John Keir, said. "We'd come back into the game after they had dominated possession and we had to defend really well."

Instead, the sheer size of the Kiwis began to tell in the final minutes, with Michael Smith, Monty Betham and Paul Rauhihi all going over to make the final score more lop-sided than the young England team had deserved.

They had made a dreadful start when Francis Melli outjumped Mark Calderwood to a Stacey Jones kick and a lucky bounce presented Ruben Wiki with the opening try inside the first two minutes, but after that their defence was often inspired.

Although starved of possession, they managed to work their way into positions from which Tickle landed two penalties to square the scores before half-time and they even had the cheek to take the lead through another Tickle kick early in the second-half.

That gave the Kiwis a wake-up call, with the previously subdued Jones running at the English defence to put Arwen Guttenbeil over and, when Ali Lauiti'iti crossed after Betham's short pass, they appeared to have matters in hand. But the combination of O'Loughlin and Walker – two of England's better players on the night – revived hopes until the crushing late efforts from the tourists.

"I thought the final score was harsh, but we tired near the end after using up a lot of petrol in the first half," said Keir. "But there are a lot of very, very encouraging signs for the Great Britain side three years down the track." Keir was consulting with the Great Britain coach, David Waite, after the match over which player should be drafted into the full Test squad, while New Zealand fear that they have lost one, with Motu Tony going to hospital for X-rays on a hand injury.

Apart from that, their coach, Gary Freeman, was well pleased with the outcome. "We used the ball better than in our previous games," he said.

ENGLAND A: Sykes (London); Calderwood (Leeds), Ellis (Wakefield), Walker (Leeds), Pryce (Castleford); O'Loughlin (Wigan), McGuire (Leeds); Lynch (Castleford), Diskin (Leeds), Ward (Leeds), Tickle (Wigan), Bennett (St Helens), Hudson (Castleford). Substitutes used: Burrow (Leeds), Moore (Bradford), Briscoe (Wigan), Stankevitch (St Helens).

New Zealand: Vaealiki; Fa'afili, Paul, Toopi, Melli; Hohaia, Jones; Rauhihi, Tony; Solomona, Wiki, Guttenbeil, Betham. Substitutes used: Lauiti'iti, Cayless, Smith, Puletua.

Referee: T Alibert (France).