New Zealand continued unbeaten on day two of the IRB Under 21 World Championship as they overcame England 29-14 at Vichy's Stade Louis Darragon.
Methodical and committed, Jim Mallinder's England side set its stall out early in the match and looked to trouble the men in black, Croft, Crane and Blaze all impressive, but New Zealand's outstanding defence held firm and as the first half wore on they established control, turning defence into stinging attack.
A sustained period of pressure of their own resulted first in a penalty for Brett and the first try was soon to follow for wing Masaga, converted by Brett, who added two further penalties for a 16-0 half time lead.
After the break the impressive Masaga scored his second and when James Somerset touched down on 54 minutes in what is his third IRB Under 21 World Championship New Zealand led 26-0.
Although the match was arguably over as a contest, England did battle well to come back at the Kiwis and flanker James Haskell scored after good work from Rogers and Brooker. A second try by Toby Flood brought seven more points for England, but New Zealand progress unbeaten and look very strong ahead of their showdown with Australia.
Quotes
Jim Mallinder, England coach: We’d left ourselves a lot to do in the second half and we had to play catch up rugby right from whistle. But we carried on playing and I’m delighted with way we came back to score two good tries. We have a good squad of players and we were confident that the bench could make a difference, which I think they did.
England Captain Jordan Crane: We're all gutted. We made some terrible mistakes which we'll go away and study on the video.
New Zealand Jamie MacKintosh: "It was very hot, which made the match very difficult, but now we have to switch our attention to Australia next up.
New Zealand coach Greg Cooper: The English put us under pressure at the start of the match when we made some mistakes.