England 20 New Zealand 41: All Blacks punish errors to inflict England's worst-ever home loss

Just before kick-off yesterday, Tessa Jowell opened Twickenham's new £100m south stand by sending a ball sailing between the sticks in slide-rule fashion. There were times during the next 80 minutes or so when the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport might as well have been in the England threequarter line, attempting to tackle the likes of Daniel Carter, Ma'a Nonu and an All Black back three of jaw-dropping quality. She would hardly have smashed the tourists into the middle of next week, but she could scarcely have made a worse mess of the vital one-on-one hits that betrayed the world champions' attempt to restore some credibility to their title.

On a day when England could have turned in something close to an error-free performance and finished second anyway, they played themselves out of the game by presenting the New Zealanders with three tries that were marshmallow soft. Anthony Allen, the 20-year-old debutant centre from Gloucester, was directly responsible for two of them; Jamie Noon, his considerably more experienced partner from Newcastle, was heavily implicated in the other. As a result of these public exercises in cock-uppery, the red rose army suffered the heaviest home defeat in their history.

Generally speaking, bearers of the silver fern do not require a leg up from their opponents. When Carter is lording it in the No 10 shirt - Lenin himself might have bowed the head and bent the knee before this aristocrat of an outside-half - and the astonishing Richie McCaw is prowling the wide open spaces like an entire pride of lions, New Zealand tend to find themselves in the happy position of controlling their own destiny. One of the tries they scored here, a multi-faceted effort completed by the tight-head prop Carl Hayman in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time, almost beggared belief. England could have defended like the heroes of the Alamo and still conceded it.

Sadly for Andy Robinson and his colleagues in a new-look Twickenham coaching hierarchy, the All Blacks did not have to work nearly so hard for the vast majority of their points. Aaron Mauger scored a try after Noon flapped ineffectively at Rico Gear; Joe Rokocoko intercepted an ill-conceived pass from Allen to jog in unopposed; Carter breezed past the same player in the second half to take his side over the 30-point frontier and into record territory. The fact that England scored three tries of their own and would have had a fourth but for the apparent inability of the "video referee" to see further than his own nose, was rendered irrelevant by these frailties and fragilities at important moments.

Just as they did at the same venue this time last year, England found a way of crossing the All Blacks' line at an early juncture. Sadly for them, this one failed to count. Martin Corry, whose performance as captain ranked alongside the very best in terms of bloody-minded determination in the face of increasing adversity, handled twice in a high-octane attack that ended with Noon sliding over with Nonu, his opposite number, in close attendance. Joel Jutge, the on-field referee, might easily have awarded the try there and then; instead, he "went upstairs" to his countryman Christophe Berdos. The television match official might have watched the whole of Gérard Depardieu's The Count of Monte Cristo in the time he took to give a decision, and then delivered the wrong one. It was a travesty.

Still, England were only six points adrift at the start of the second quarter, despite being stretched this way and that by the All Black runners, principally the full-back Mils Muliaina. Had Noon made his tackle on Gear as the strikingly intelligent wing ran out of defence in the 25th minute, they might have stayed in touch. But Noon did not make the tackle, and by the time Ben Cohen missed the loose-head prop Tony Woodcock as he cut off his left foot towards the line at the other end of the field, the damage had been done. Mauger touched down on the overlap, Carter added the extras and New Zealand had a winning lead.

Noon recovered some dignity eight minutes later, hoovering up a pass from Allen initially aimed at Iain Balshaw and scampering past the discombobulated Gear for the try he should have had earlier. But Charlie Hodgson, who was less than impressive in comparison to Carter and woefully out of touch with his goal-kicking, fluffed the conversion. When Rokocoko snaffled another of Allen's attempts to find Balshaw and disappeared into the wide blue yonder, New Zealand were 23-5 up and home free.

One way or another, England could have done without the long spell of first-half injury time, for the All Blacks scored again before the interval. This one was a classic - a length-of-the-field job initiated by Gear, who released the ever-threatening Rokocoko close to the left touchline, and finished by Hayman, who somehow put his vast bulk on the end of some brilliant off-loads by Nonu and Chris Jack. Corry and company trudged off knowing they had split the possession 50-50, claimed 58 per cent of the territory and still been ripped to shreds.

Futile though it always appeared to be, England sneaked the second half by a couple of points. Cohen took advantage of some unexpectedly clever passing from the forwards George Chuter and Lewis Moody to work his way in at the start of the second period, and the increasingly authoritative Shaun Perry, who enjoyed a very decent debut at scrum-half, clung on to a misplaced kick from Mauger and sprinted 65 metres for another score. But these beacons of light were darkened by Carter's giveaway try - another blow to the solar plexus for Allen, who must have felt sick to the pit of his stomach.

Allen has enough sang-froid about him to recover, and recover quickly. He is not the sort to panic. There is no point the England selectors panicking, either, despite this latest agony. The World Cup is too close for that.

England: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), A Allen (Gloucester), B Cohen (Northampton); C Hodgson (Sale), S Perry (Bristol); A Sheridan (Sale), G Chuter (Leicester), J White (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester, capt), L Moody (Leicester), P Sanderson (Worcester). Replacements: M Lund (Sale) for Sanderson, 59; P Richards (Gloucester) for Perry, 66; L Mears (Bath) for Chuter, 77.

New Zealand: M Muliaina (Waikato); R Gear (Tasman), M Nonu (Wellington), A Mauger (Canterbury), J Rokocoko (Auckland); D Carter (Canterbury), B Kelleher (Waikato); A Woodcock (North Harbour), K Mealamu (Auckland), C Hayman (Otago), K Robinson (Waikato), C Jack (Tasman), R Thorne (Canterbury), R McCaw (Canterbury, capt), C Masoe (Wellington). Replacements: A Ellis (Canterbury) for Kelleher, 68; S Sivivatu (Waikato) for Gear, 71; C Dermody (Southland) for Woodcock, 73; R So'oialo (Wellington) for Thorne, 73; A Hore (Taranaki) for Mealamu, 77; J Afoa (Auckland) for Hayman, 77.

Referee: J Jutge (France).