No one could ever recall Twickenham being quite like this. The place must have registered on the Richter scale as a capacity 73,000 shook the spanking new stadium to its rafters for this truly momentous, shuddering collision. Shaken by England, the brilliant All Blacks were stirred into a mighty comeback and even then England dug deeper than they ever have done.
It ebbed and it flowed, and was so jam-packed with incident that the lid nearly came off. At the end, English manager Roger Uttley spoke of an "outstanding game", of the quality of rugby, the mental and physical exhaustion, and likened the two teams at the climax to "two punch drunk boxers".
Drained by it all, at the final whistle the players seemed as if they didn't know what to do, many leaning on their knees and staring blankly, before shaking hands and drifting off to the dressing-rooms. They were dead on their feet, but maybe they didn't want it to end either.
This time, perversely, there was no English lap of honour, and just as ambiguously Simply the Best blasted out of the public address. Which begged the question, who was the best after a draw? Well, the game of rugby, maybe.
In truth, the All Blacks are still the best, as English coach Clive Woodward was quick to acknowledge. Yet this game was more about what England did, given where they came from, and the thought occurred that England's performance was something of a benchmark for Ireland - albeit a distant one.
From the moment scrum-half Kyran Bracken tapped and ran a second-minute penalty on halfway, it was Bracken and England, remarkably, who set the tempo. They continued to eschew kicks at goal and again met New Zealand head-on in the physical stakes.
England had the rub of the green as well, beginning with the verdict on David Rees's fifth-minute try. Paul Grayson, standing flatter and providing a running link more tellingly than pundits such as Stuart Barnes ever thought possible, brought England's rampaging back-rowers and the roving Austin Healey into play from a variety of angles close to the gain line. Grayson is supposed to be a kicking out-half who plays in the pocket!
The All Blacks play an "outside in" defence with Jeff Wilson a masterful exponent of it. However, Grayson sold him the neatest of dummies to release Healey with a quick, flat pass, and Will Greenwood - England's most potent runner this past month - eluded Christian Cullen and carried it on for the supporting Richard Hill to score.
However much Justin Marshall denied it afterwards, the All Blacks looked rattled. Handling errors abounded, Mehrtens's kicking game was poor (despite a record 21 points in this fixture), their back line wasn't moving well and when Frank Bunce failed to link with either Cullen on his outside or Josh Kronfeld on his inside, the outstanding Lawrence Dallaglio hacked on the loose layoff and scored.
Gradually, New Zealand woke up and, in fact, might have won the game comfortably. Mehrtens chipped away at the lead and the key moment of the match was the forward pass by Taine Randall to Jeff Wilson which referee Jim Fleming, up with the play, correctly called against his linesman to prevent the lead closing to 2016. Instead, Grayson took it to 239.
You still felt England would need every point of it. During the interval, the tannoy blasted out Land of Hope and Glory and all the old tub-thumpers. England came out early for some gentle handling drills to raucous, gladiatorial encouragement. Meantime, the furious New Zealand coach John Hart kept his team inside for the full 10 minutes - "cut out the handling errors and retain the ball" being the motto.
That they did, remorselessly so. The pack powered away. Jonah Lomu set up a tonne of ball. Zinzan Brooke and Marshall called the shots. Bunce and the brilliant Walter Little made inroads and the New Zealanders accumulated 17 unanswered points.
Shades of their brilliant comeback in South Africa and for sheer sustained drama, shades too of Ireland's heroic quarter-final defeat to Australia in 1991. But this time the underdogs had a sting for the tale, Grayson levelling and in the frantic finale England willingly spun it as much as the All Blacks in search of the winning score. Fair play to them.
Although Hart and Marshall made light of the latest punch on the New Zealand captain - courtesy of the objectionable and obnoxious Richard Cockerill - the All Blacks were angered and frustrated by England's sometimes cynical tactics.
Cullen was tugged back by Dallaglio when attempting to loop around Bunce, Wilson was obstructed by Matt Perry when Little had made the initial intrusion, and English players again continually held their opponents on the ground and killed or delayed ruck ball. There was an outcry when Dallaglio's arm was raked by Marshall, but he was clearly killing the ball and knows what to expect when he does that.
Hart also lamented the four or five tries that were "butchered with the last pass". Then there was Mehrtens's failed late drop goal, with Zinzan Brooke used as a decoy when perhaps it should have been he other way around. In truth, New Zealand should have won. They won the line-outs 17-5, poaching three of Cockerill's throws; and had the ball fully six minutes more of the time and crossed the gain line over twice as much as England did.
England have been installed as 8 to 13 favourites by bookmakers Coral to win the Five Nations Championship. France are second favourites at 15 to 8, Wales are 14 to 1, Scotland 16 to 1 and Ireland 33 to 1. Coral also make England 7 to 4 to win the Grand Slam and 4 to 9 to win the Triple Crown.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins: Rees try, 5-0; 8: Hill try, 10-0; 13: Mehrtens pen, 10-3; 15: Dallaglio try, Grayson con, 17-3; 19: Grayson pen, 20-3; 32: Mehrtens pen, 20-6; 36: Mehrtens pen, 20-9; 40: Grayson pen, 23-9; 43: Mehrtens try, Mehrtens con, 23-16; 53: Mehrtens pen 23-19; 63: Little try, Mehrtens con, 23-26; 71: Grayson pen, 26-26.
England: M Perry (Bath); D Rees (Sale), W Greenwood (Leicester), P de Glanville (Bath), A Healey (Leicester); P Grayson (Northampton), K Bracken (Saracens); J Leon- ard (Harlequins), R Cockerill (Leicester), D Garforth (Leicester), M Johnson (Leicester), G Archer (Newcastle), L Dallaglio (Wasps, capt), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens). Replacements: T Stimpson (Newcastle) for Rees (6-18 mins) and for de Glaanville (59 mins), C Sheasby (Wasps) for Back (19-28 mins), M Dawson (Northampton) for Bracken (59 mins), M Regan (Bath) for Cockerill (63 mins).
New Zealand: C Cullen (Manawatu); J Wilson (Otago), F Bunce (North Harbour), W Little (North Harbour), J Lomu (Counties); A Mehrtens (Canterbury), J Marshall (Canterbury, capt); M Allen (Manawatu), N Hewitt (Southland), O Brown (Auckland), I Jones (North Harbour), R Brooke (Auckland), T Randell (Otago), J Kronfeld (Otago), Z Brooke (Auckland). Replacements: C Riechelmann (Auckland) for Kronfeld (31-34 mins), C Spencer (Auckland) for Little (65 mins), S McLeod (Waikato) for Bunce (74 mins).
Referee: J Fleming (Scotland).
