New Zealand rugby coach Ian Foster says his team feels flat, after allowing England to grab a last-gasp draw in a game the All Blacks dominated for 70 minutes.
"We'll be more disappointed than them," Foster said. "I loved the way we played for large parts of the game, we're moving well, but it shows we're not quite there yet."
Foster is surprised England did not press for the win, a sentiment echoed by swathes of the home crowd, who had booed Marcus Smith's call to settle for the draw.
"If you flipped it around, I would have liked our guys to have a crack, so I'm not sure what their tactics were," Foster said.
England captain Owen Farrell has defended the decision, saying that England were not in a strong field position to attack, and coach Eddie Jones has poured cold water on the suggestion his side bottled the chance to snatch an even more famous win, saying he trusted his players to make their own decisions.
For all the focus on England's dual-playmaker threat of Smith and Farrell, New Zealand's duo of Richie Mo'unga and Beauden Barrett ran the game, repeatedly outflanking the hosts with clever cross kicks.
"Beaudie on those kick passes, he's very good at it and he sees space," Foster said.
While the Smith-Farrell axis still needs work, if it is to be England's first choice set-up, the All Blacks appear to have settled on starting Mo'unga at 10, with the former incumbent in the role, Barrett, acting as a second option from fullback.
"While it's frustrating, there were large parts of that performance that I'm really proud of," Foster said, pointing to the set-piece, where the All Blacks eked scrum penalties and mostly dominated the lineout.
Reuters
