'One of the poorest All Blacks performances I've seen in a long time'

Former Wales captain Dan Biggar believes England will see their recent 2-0 series loss to the All Blacks as a “huge, huge opportunity missed,” and has claimed Steve Borthwick’s side should have come away from New Zealand with two victories.

England arrived in New Zealand aiming to register their first victory over the All Blacks there in 21 years, and looked to be in with a chance of achieving that feat both in Dunedin and Auckland.

In both Tests England held the lead and control of the match at the hour mark, but let their advantage slip in both encounters.

Beauden Barrett talks through his game-changing performance against England | Steinlager Series

Beauden Barrett talks through his game-changing performance against England | Steinlager Series

Speaking on The Rugby Pod this week, the Welsh centurion said he does not think England will ever have a better chance to beat the All Blacks away.

The Welsh centurion even went as far to say that the recent performance at Eden Park was one of the “poorest” All Blacks performances he has seen in a long time.

Both the All Blacks’ attack and defence were put under the microscope by Biggar, as he held nothing back.

“I’ve got to be honest, it would be interesting to hear from an English point of view, obviously I’m a neutral, but I don’t think England will have as good a chance to beat the All Blacks after the last two performances,” the former British & Irish Lion said.

“I think in Dunedin, which clearly they should have won had it not been for a couple of missed kicks from Marcus [Smith], and I’ve got to be honest, I think Saturday was one of the poorest All Blacks performances I’ve seen in a long long time.”

“I think England should have walked away from this series with two victories. I think they were incredibly unlucky in Dunedin and Beauden Barrett came on and made a huge difference.

“I don’t think England will have two weeks on the spin, will they ever get as good an opportunity to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand again? I personally don’t think so.

“I personally have never seen a more error-strewn performance in the first 60 minutes from New Zealand. If England had played the way New Zealand had in that first 60 minutes, we would have been tearing them to pieces. Because New Zealand resorted to hoofing the ball down field, there were errors.

“I must have played the All Blacks six, seven, eight times and I don’t think they gave us a single thing in any game. I watched that game on Saturday and I just thought that was such an opportunity for England.

“You look at the try Marcus Smith got back for and did exceptionally well to get an intercept- the New Zealand of old don’t butcher that. That’s seven points away from you.

“Even from a defensive point of view, for the [Tommy] Freeman try, where they had given away a ridiculous penalty advantage which allowed Smith to go for that advantage and chance his arm on a 50/50- the New Zealand of old don’t give that.

“I’d be looking at that from an England point of view and I’d be thinking that’s a huge, huge opportunity missed considering how well they played for large periods of those two Test matches.”