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Marcus Smith admitted England had allowed another glorious opportunity to topple New Zealand slip away in a 24-17 defeat at Eden Park.
Tries by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Tommy Freeman, set-up by kicks from Smith, helped Steve Borthwick’s men’ build a 17-13 lead heading into the final quarter, but the arrival of Beauden Barrett off the bench ignited the All Blacks.
New Zealand finished the match strongly to complete a 2-0 series victory having won the first Test 16-15 with the rivals meeting again at Twickenham on 2 November.
Smith, who kicked two conversions and a penalty, said fine margins were the difference between the teams.
“For me, it was just the small moments. Eden Park is a historic place and we had the belief we could do something special,” Smith told Sky Sports.
“It was probably the small moments – a touch at the breakdown, a few wrong decisions on the edges from myself – that turned the tie in the All Blacks’ favour.
“When they’re ahead, they’re obviously a very successful team and it’s hard to wrestle momentum back. Tough one to take.
“We’re building to something and the belief we have is growing. On another day we get the result here, or the result last week.
“Fair play to New Zealand, they’re a tough team to beat. We’ll give them a good go in the autumn.”
England dominated territory and possession in the third quarter but could not engineer the points needed to put the All Blacks away at a point in the game when they were struggling for composure.
The tourists will look back on George Martin giving away a needless free-kick at a line-out and Jamie George fumbling as an attack gathered pace – both close to the whitewash – as key moments.
“It’s tough. We’ve shown some improvement in the way we’re playing the game but this wasn’t good enough at the end of the day,” second row Maro Itoje said.
“In the second-half we were not as accurate as we wanted to be. We gave away a few too many penalties and we gave them easy points and easy territory. When you’re playing against a good team, you can’t really do that.
“We gave them backfield opportunities to run it back to them and Beauden Barrett and the rest of them are good players. We live and we learn. We’re only going to get better for these experiences.”
New Zealand captain Scott Barrett admitted the All Blacks were forced to show character in both matches.
“I’m hugely proud of the boys to hold on and win the arm wrestle and finish off a good performance,” Barrett said.
“Test matches certainly test your character and we had to dig deep there, right until the last minute. Well done to England, they’ve had two strong Test matches against us.”
