ENGLAND and Wasps prop Matt Mullan says that while there might have been panic in the stands as the All Blacks stormed into a 17-3 lead at Twickenham, the players themselves never lost the faith.

He said: “It happened so quickly, but the good thing about the belief in the England squad now is they don’t think they’re out of any game and they definitely go into games expecting to win or at least thinking they should be able to win.

“We said all along we had respect for New Zealand but we didn’t fear them. Even going 17-3 down, it was just a question of focusing on what we had to do to correct that.

“That last ten minutes before half time proved we were in the fight, and we actually did take the lead at one point. It was just a shame we didn’t finish it off.

“As a squad we were massively disappointed but the coaches were able to take a step back and highlight the positives to the players.

“Chris Robshaw spoke after and said well done on one hand, but if we’re serious about becoming a top world team we need to start finishing these games off.

“It’s just about that next step and the players all spoke on Sunday morning before they left about trying to build to the Six Nations.”