England v New Zealand: Rugby World Cup 2019, semi-final – live! – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

64 mins. Loads of subs have happened.

Dane Coles, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Angus Ta’avao, Patrick Tuipulotu, Sam Cane, TJ Perenara, Sonny Bill Williams, Jordie Barrett are all on for NZ.

Dan Cole, George Kruis, Willi Heinz and Henry Slade all on for England

62 mins.The little out-half thuds it over.

Youngs is replaced by Willi Heinz.

61 mins.England are back in possession and warming everyone’s hands with possession, it’s chipped back to NZ before Underhill – again with a thunderous tackle -dislodges the ball to give his side another attack in the New Zealand 22. England win a penalty, and George Ford calmly beckons the tee onto the field.

That’s a potential game-winning tackle by Underhill.

Both the TMO and Nigel Owens agree it was a genuine tackle attempt, play on, England tricky defensive lineout on 5 meters is horribly overthrown to Savea at the tail, and he walks it in. Mo’unga slots the conversion.

55 mins. Perenara, on for Smith, is chirping instructions as his side attack the England 22. Underhill rattles Read’s bones in a tackle and on the next phase they go right to Sevu Reece who blasts towards the corner, but he’s put in touch five meters out by Slade.

The TMO is checking whether Slade used his arms in the tackle.

Eleanor Ainge Roy

At the Bulloch Bar in central Wanaka, in the bottom half of the South Island, the mood is unusually subdued and quiet as the first half ends. A seriousness hangs over proceedings. Dominance of the All Blacks has come to be par for the course in this rugby obsessed nation, and England’s fierce and fiery outing has given locals a shock. The usual joviality is noticeably absent.

(mins.) Tom Curry is on the ball at the NZ ruck again and England have the ball back in the 22, the referee is continuing to play advantage for an off the ball tackle by Sam Cane. Owens has a long chat with Kieran Read as he’s not happy with NZ regularly infringing, particularly off the ball.

Ford is lining up the kick.

48 mins.England have a lineout outside the All Black 22.

Meanwhile Cole is on for a limping Sinckler, and Slade has replaced May.

46 mins. NO TRY!

Marius Jonker says that the ball was lost forward back into the ruck. I don’t agree, I thing Jamie George never let go of the ball and Jonker made that call far too soon and with too much confidence. If England lose this game then this will be a massive call as you see that happen in thousands of rucks without note

45 mins. TMO TIME FOR ANOTHER ENGLAND TRY!

A breathless passage of play with offloads and turnover all over the shop. Youngs grabs it and is into the New Zealand 22 and England get a penalty . They go into the 22, Youngs dummies and goes through a gap and over . But they want to check if it’s knocked on in the maul before it.

42 mins.Daly launches it virtually from Korea and it has the legs – but is just left.

The teams are on their way back out.

As predicted, Sam Cane is on for the failed Scott Barrett experiment.

New Zealandwill at some point have a sustained period of possession, they always do. They will also come back at England on the scoreboard, they always do.

Don’t discount them coming back and winning the thing, they (almost) always do.

Yes, the specter of the Soul-Splinterer still looms large, as always, but England look not only dominant but also mostly relaxed and at ease, which is the biggest surprise for me.

If they can score early again this half and make it 17 – 0, then you have to say that would be the game.

New Zealandwere largely nowhere in that half, and on the few occasions they did get somewhere England’s defense dealt with it comfortably. They are also getting murdered at the breakdown and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam Cane makes an appearance from the tunnel for the second half.

England couldn’t have asked for more in terms of performance, but they might should’ve had more points for their nearly 70% possession.

40 mins. That is a remarkable kick under pressure from Ford.

37 mins.NZ win it and go wide on first phase to Beauden Barrett joining the line, he chips forward but Watson mops up on his own 10 meter line. NZ have it back from a kick but the return from Barrett meets Underhill head-on, Goodhue carries the next phase and this time Tom Curry is over the ball, on it and winning the penalty.

Perfect vignette there of what this young flank partnership have brought to England this year. It really has made all the difference.

(mins.) England scrum on the All Black 10 -metre line is won without fuss, but it’s all a little imprecise in and around the ruck and Sinckler spills a short pass to give NZ a scrum feed on their own 22.

31 mins.England win a scrum penalty and Elliott Daly just about makes touch on the N Z 22. Farrell, who looks to still be struggling is doing his best to run things, but he’s clearly in trouble. Ford goes for a drop goal but it’s high and wide ride.

Farrell is staying on, which says a lot about how fundamental he is to England.

29 mins.New Zealand are forced into touch again on their next possession – a combination of England lightning blitz and energetic scramble is proving too much for them at the moment.

New Zealand have lost two lineouts, so whatever Scott Barrett was meant to bring is not obvious so far.

27 mins.Ford kicks straight to Mo’unga who refuses the chance to mark it and feeds Goodhue, and he offloads to Scott Barrett who then feeds Retallick and the big lock carries it 30 meters in the open. They recycle quickly but England’s scramble defense does the job again.

Owen Farrellis limping but is staying of for now.

25 mins. NO TRY!

Nigel Owens rules that the dummy runner, that Sam Whitelock tackled in front of the ball, was a blocking run.

25 mins. TMO TIME FOR POTENTIAL ENGLAND TRY!

Anthony Watson, who has been a spinning, stepping revelation so far, has the ball out wide. He stops dead before gassing forward and beating two again, the ball is recycled and Underhill has the ball behind a dummy runner and he’s in over the try line. It has a look of crossing.

18 mins. Courtney Lawes nicks the All Black lineout and England exit up to their own 10 meter line. New Zealand make no mistake with this one and the maul gets going, but then it collapses legally, the ball won’t come and England have the scrum.

Nothing is happening for New Zealand at all at the moment.

15 mins.Another turnover, this time NZ getting the ball back in the IR 22 and Aaron Smith dispatches it to touch. It will invite another England attack, which sees Farrell free on a scissor run off Ford, he’s into the 22 but for ces an offload that goes forward. There was no need to do that there, England need to hold their composure.

9 mins.Of course, that is the cue for England to spill it in the tackle and NZ have transitional possession to attack with but all they can do is throw and interception back to England. Jonny May is streaking away up the left but has to check inside as Scott Barrett covers, he tries to find Farrell with an inside pop but it goes forward.

NZ kick a penalty to touch in their next possession.

6 mins.England win the lineout and again it’s carried repeatedly through multiple hit ups again, each of which are inching forward. It’s kicked eventually and Beauden Barrett can only find touch in his own half again.

England look precise, powerful and at ease presently.

England’s first lineout is a good one and Manu has his first carry. They are putting it through hands with Daly up and present in the line early, Watson carries into the NZ half and two phases later they are under the posts. Manu pops up again to pick and drive over from three meters. Farrell converts.

That is quite the start.

England stand in a deep V formation to face the Haka. It’s encroaching into the NZ half and the officials try to move them back but they’re having none of it.Owen Farrellhas a sly smile on his face as he looks on and the needle has started early.

Just as we like it.

Anthems Watch.

The spine-tingling nature of the game is in direct opposition to that of the anthems, if I’m honest.

It’s haka time and then we’ll be underway.

Here come the teams!

Out they come down an incredibly long corridor to the tunnel. Seriously, that was like something out ofLabyrinth,minus David Bowie in jodhpurs. Eventually they emerge into the light, drums and noise.

Eddie Jones is chatting.

“We have a certain way we play and we’re sticking to it, we’ll need points and George and Owen give us plenty of options in attack”

He may say that, but don’t be surprised if they spend the first 20 minutes keeping it tight in the carry and kicking.

15 minutes to go.

Both teams have left the field, time for the final pre-game rituals – which always involves a forward going for long toilet trip, in my experience. Which of these forwards look like they’d be in that role? I’m going for Sam Whitelock.

This is the thing, England can win this but it will have to be a 98% performance. The difference between the sides is that NZ can probably drop to 90% and still do it, it’s a small gap, but at this stage and this level that’s all it takes and the All Blacks are so ve ry good at being the right side of the gap most often.

“Rock Climbing in the French forest of Fontainebleau. As nervous about finding a place to watch the game as the game itself. ”Ollie informs us,“ The sleepy surroundings yielding nothing so far. I’ll be knocking on cottage doors soon in case someone is watching. No ones going to welcome this Englishman in, are they? ”

They may let you in, Ollie, but you may never leave. And I mean that in a The League Of Gentleman way.

New Zealand coachSteve Hansenis talking on the TV.

Addressing the Scott Barrett selection he simply says “we wanted some more height” with his usual deadpan delivery. So there you go.

“Much as I admire Dan Cole for his scrummaging, there’s little else apart from the fact he’s a really nice guy.” Says Phil Merivale, “I’d have thought that the prop these days should be able to pass, run, tackle, swerve, and / or, not knock-on or give away pens. ”

I know where you’re coming from Phil, but Cole has I think a very simple role in this team and that’s to come on and scrummage – a strength as you point out – and also make a mess of opposition ball in the ruck. Previously, he has run too close to the penalty line with the latter, but he seems to have ironed that worry out of late.

Terrifyingly talented brothers alert!

Andy Bull fill us in on the Barretts, those special but unassuming rugby siblings:

Some good portent for England fans here, maybe.

I’m sure you have a number of things to get off your chest, and it’s always better out than in, so send your thoughts to mevia emailor onTwitter.

Pre-game reading:Rob Kitson runs his eye over the match:

Eddie Jonesreturns to the Ford-Farrell axis and moves Henry Slade to the bench despite his impressive display against Australia. The only other change sees Lewis Ludlam give up his bench spot to the indefatigable gnarly physicality of Mark Wilson. It should be quite a tussle when both Wilson and the All Black Sam Cane enter the fray from the dug-out to have a competition as to who can be the most deceptively destructive physical presence.

Steve Hansenhas done what passes for rolling the dice for him. Scott Barrett, a lock-forward, starts today at blind-side for the first time in his 34 caps. He’s not a complete novice at this level having come off the bench to play flanker eight times, including for a full half in the dismantling of an already beaten Ireland last week, but he’s not far off.

What to make of this? Barrett offers another lineout option, which will certainly counter Itoje’s threat to get in front of opposition jumpers and steal ball if he has more to cover. He will also offer more bulk to counter England’s carriers, especially the Vunipolas. Either of these makes some sense, but what has jaws wagging is that making a change to counter opposition tactics is not very Hansen and even less All Blacks – they usually prefer the ‘let them worry about us’ approach.

If England can work their blueprint early, they could have enough to hang on. But, I’ve a feeling we could see a plan out of the blocks from NZ similar to how they attacked thefirst Lions test in 2017: incredibly physical carries off precise short passes, either offloaded or from around the ruck, that inched them up the field, ground the opposition under them and led to a comfortable win (including a Fifteen Minute Soul-Splinterer early in the second half, by the way).

When you consider that, Scott Barrett’s selection appears the most logical of decisions.

England:Elliot Daly; Anthony Watson, Manu Tuilagi,Owen Farrell(capt), Jonny May; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Tom Curry, Sam Underhill, Billy Vunipola

Replacements:Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Marler, Dan Cole, George Kruis, Mark Wilson, Willi Heinz, Henry Slade, Jonathan Joseph.

New Zealand:Beauden Barrett; Sevu Reece, Jack Goodhue, Anton Lienert-Brown, George Bridge; Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith; Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Nepo Laulala, Brodie Retallick, Samuel Whitelock, Scott Barrett, Ardie Savea, Kieran Read (capt).

Replacements:Dane Coles, Ofa Tuungafasi, Angus Ta ‘avao, Patrick Tuipulotu, Sam Cane, TJ Perenara, Sonny Bill Williams, Jordie Barrett

Hello everyone and welcome to this first semi-final, as England take on New Zealand in Yokohama.

You may have heard mention that England won aRugby World Cuponce, something about a drop-goal, I think. What is less mentioned is that the Red Rose team have defeated every nation they have played against in the nine World Cups so far with the exception of one, New Zealand. England have beaten New Zealand seven times in their history – it happens roughly once a decade with notable regularity, the pattern of wins since the 70 s going 1973, 1983, 1993, 2002 -3 (twice) and 2012. Worrying for them, note they’re not due another for at least three years.

How much the past is a predictor of the future is up for debate – just ask anyone who thought Sir Clive Woodward would make a good rugby pundit – but England are up against it today.

New Zealand for a while were a running joke at Rugby World Cups; the best team in the world that couldn’t win the tournament that proves it. The near quarter century of outings after their 1987 win echoed to some harrowing version of“four more years, boys!”. They limped over the line on home soil in 2011 to finally throw the monkey off their back then, emboldened, they chased the thing down the street and bludgeoned it with a bat as they dominated the 2015 tournament. Meet the new Blacks, same as the old Blacks. Relying on some type ofFrench-style RWC kryptonite impeding themas it did a few times before isn’t going to do it these days.

There is also no side in the world for the past decade better than the All Blacks at taking a game away from a team. For a while, it seems like their opponents are in it: a good contest, plenty to play for, “we might just do this, you know!”

Then it comes – The Fifteen Minute Soul-Splinterer.

A quarter-hour in which they tear you asunder like piranhas – such massive piranhas – stripping a carcass. It could be in the opening burst as a battered Ireland discovered last week, or perhaps in the run up to half-time, but usually it’s in that horrible five or ten minutes into the second half, leaving limited time afterwards for your flayed team to somehow claw three tries back.

England must overcome all this. Can they do it? If any team is capable on form so far then it is Eddie Jones’s charges, they are a settled side and they know what they’re about. They have a working blueprint of applying pressure, getting points on the board, then employing some significant shutdown forwards from the bench alloyed with arguably the best scramble defense in the tournament to ensure those points are enough. So far, so comfortable.

It’s about to get less comfortable.

Kick-off:9am BST, 9pm NZDT.