Every tackle, turnover and successful dual was being celebrated long, loud and together by England’s players as they zeroed in on a first home win over New Zealand in 12 years.
The biggest cheer though was reserved for referee Angus Gardner, whose voice was broadcast NFL-style over the stadium speakers – a new innovation for this autumn – as he reviewed and ruled out a score by Beauden Barrett for Caleb Clarke’s knock-on.
However, England ultimately could not keep the visitors at bay.
The replacement front row – Fin Baxter, Theo Dan and Dan Cole – lost their grip on the scrum and the penalty count ticked up against the home side.
Finally Tele’a, forced back into the fray on 66 minutes by an injury to Beauden Barrett having been replaced, pirouetted through Ford’s tackle and held off Harry Randall to dot down.
Damian McKenzie coolly landed the touchline conversion to take the Kiwis back in front.
There was still time for more drama, but not another twist in the scoreline.
Ford, brought on in the 62nd minute to see the game out, planted a long, but straight penalty shot against the post and then clipped a last-gasp drop-goal wide in a desparate, doomed pursuit of a comeback.
In England’s last outing at Twickenham, Smith had landed a drop-goal from a similar spot to defeat Grand Slam-chasing Ireland.
This time, they could not muster the same accuracy and were left with a vastly different feeling from March’s joy.
England: Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Lawrence, Freeman; M Smith, Spencer; Genge, George (capt), Stuart; Itoje, Martin; Cunningham-South, T Curry, Earl.
Replacements: Dan, Baxter, Cole, Isiekwe, B Curry, Dombrandt, Randall, Ford.
New Zealand: Jordan; Tele’a, Ioane, J Barrett, Clarke; B Barrett, Ratima; Williams, Taylor, Lomax, S Barrett (capt), Vaa’i, Sititi, Cane, Savea.
Replacements: Aumua, Tu’ungafasi, Tosi, Tuipulotu, Finau, Roigard, Lienart-Brown, McKenzie.
