Kenny-Dowall strikes as New Zealand level England series

It was a marked improvement all round from the Kiwis and Kearney said there had been the required change in attitude from that 26-12 defeat in Hull.

McNarama was particularly pleased by the way England kept New Zealand at bay for large parts, with the visitors crossing over just once thanks to Shaun Kenny-Dowall, but the head coach admits that more needs to be done ahead of next week’s decider. England had most of the defending to do and did it well, but their own options were poor, especially when they put boot to ball in conditions that were ideal for forcing mistakes.

Kearney had particular praise for the performance of Tohu Harris at the Olympic Stadium.

“I didn’t see comprehensive downward movement from the hands, but that’s football”, he said. “I thought he was pretty good”. But Harris was enormous today, playing the full 80 minutes on both edges and relentless on attack and defence.

England’s effort out of possession was something to behold – as the Kiwis forced 14 repeat sets – while a few of the last ditch tackles from both teams were outstanding.

“I’m not too anxious”.

McNamara said: “We gave ourselves too much to do defensively and in a game as tight as that, ultimately that cost us”.

“As I touched on earlier in the week it needed to improve because the English side played very well in the first test, they’ve a very good footy team and we needed to treat them with the respect they deserve”.

Although prop forward James Graham had a try controversially disallowed by the video referees, England struggled woefully to create chances, which Widdop put down to their arduous work in defence.

Kearney said: “I just got a feeling over the course of the week that Kodi would handle the decision a little bit better”.

Kiwis co-captain Adam Blair says they were extremely patient.

Harris came up with a brilliant pick up and pass to send Shaun Kenny-Dowall over to score in the corner for NZ.

Jordan Kahu added the conversion but still England failed to lift themselves out of second gear.

A near sell out-is expected at the Olympic Stadium – the first rugby league match to be played at the venue – to crank up the expectation that has built following last week’s victory, with England on the brink of a first Test series win over New Zealand since the now defunct Great Britain triumphed 3-0 in 2007.

Luke then had a chance to wrap it up with a penalty but he missed the target from easy range.

England thought they had equalised in the 67th minute, when James Graham dived on to Gareth Widdop’s grubber-kick.