Wynne Gray: Time to burn off 'playing rust'

England got into the All Blacks' psyche. Photo / Getty Images

A piece of rare All Black precision broke England open.

It was training ground action, loosely termed as a starter move for the All Blacks before they swing into their real attacking strategy.

But this time England's defence fractured and No 8 Kieran Read was driven across the tryline. It was too easy, too soft - and high in the coaches' box, Beetlebrow looked as unimpressed as most of the 82,000 who gathered yesterday at Twickenham.

In Martin Johnson's day, England had a thou-shalt-not pass policy on defence. This was just marshmallow resistance.

From that 14-point deficit after a quarter of the game, England won the rest of the game 13-12. They lurched into the test with the venom of the snails which inhabited Twickenham's one-time cabbage patch.

The All Blacks began with a snap, had the buffer of the two tries then failed to push on. There were a multitude of reasons. They were unsettled by Monsieur Poite's scrum decisions, lost rhythm as possession became erratic and struggled as England got into their work.

The All Blacks battled on, unable to put their mark on a match they were desperate to win after last week's stumble in Hong Kong.

Clearly the coaches felt they would not get much more impact from the bench. Hikawera Elliot, Liam Messam and Stephen Donald stayed in their tracksuits while John Afoa was only tried for the last four minutes.

Out on the track, England raised their game, though they lacked any great nuances on attack. But they got into the All Blacks' psyche. They scrapped and disrupted the flow.

And when they were gifted a dubious try to hooker Dylan Hartley, England were suddenly only a converted try adrift with nearly half an hour to run. It seemed preposterous and former team manager and current NZRU president John Sturgeon looked very squeamish in the Royal Box.

The All Blacks squeezed in a penalty and then held on, despite losing Jerome Kaino to the sinbin.

Assistant Steve Hansen reckoned the troubles were caused by playing rust, a problem he might ponder further after being part of a group recommending multiple stand-downs after the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney.

They learned Gear had the backbone to return from two previous fitful appearances for the All Blacks and that he deserved another run this week against Scotland. His bruising attack and pace have rarely wavered but he needed to clean up his work on defence.

Gear must demand a repeat start at Murrayfield, leaving Joe Rokocoko and a fit Cory Jane duelling for the other flank.

Liam Messam, Daniel Braid, Ben Franks, Hikawera Elliot and Andrew Hore should be part of plans this week. Does Sonny Bill Williams get another chance straight away, perhaps at second five-eighths? And what about the halfback, lock and hooking conundrums?

Two years ago the All Blacks made 12 starting changes against Scotland. They will have to go down a similar path to give some of this squad a chance to present their credentials.

But they might also bolster the reserves with some of the senior men as insurance.