Quote JWP="JWP"It rains an awful lot in NZ, Rob. The players will be familiar with playing in those conditions.
Nothing to do with conditions, our pack simply got on top of theirs. End of discussion. Didn't think either backline was too flash, it was whoever got on top in the middle, would go on to win. I think the last World Cup, when NZ did a job on us, it was in wet conditions then, we just weren't good enough that night, we were last night. We were in danger of getting reffed out of it in the first half but did well during that period.
I don't think we should 'downplay' this win, far from it. It was the World Champions out there, who drew with Australia a fortnight back, enjoy the win, in fact talk it up, why not, we're all quick to criticise defeat, we should celebrate success in equal measure, not look for ways to 'dumb it down'.'"
Nobody is down playing our win last night, it was a very good England win that showed grit and determination.
To your first point, the bulk of that kiwi squad are based in Australia and play for Australian clubs.
Your other point where you said it was raining when we played the kiwis in the world cup last year, it wasn`t raining, they blew us away in dry conditions. They showed some of the highlights of that game in the build up on sky.
As for your point about us beating the world cup winners, at leasst 8 of the Kiwis world cup winning team didn`t even travel over to play.
Southern hemispehere teams like to move the ball along the line at every available oppertunity, those conditions last night didn`t allow for that which is why it became a game down the middle for the majority of the night and its why we didn`t see much back play with ball in hand from both sides, both the kiwi and england half backs were spectators for a lot of the game.
Rain and a greasy pitch will always be a leveller to a certain extent when your coming up against sides that like to move the ball along the line at pace, compare the speed at which the aussies and kiwis move the ball in dry conditions to how we moved it against France and Wales, the difference is like night and day.
Even you can`t be that blinkered to say that wet conditions wouldn`t be an advantage to us against either the kiwis or australia.