England head home from New Zealand having lost their last game of the tour but claiming to have found something that should help them when they return for the World Cup in 15 months' time.
Not for the first time in their 100 years, New Zealand Maori upstaged a touring side, but even after conceding four tries in Napier – three of them to the wing Hosea Gear – the England camp was claiming more pluses than minuses from the five-game tour, which ended with two wins, two defeats and a draw.
Danny Care, the scrum-half, even went as far as to suggest that a new philosophy had been formed in the past week. "We came here [Napier] to play, we came to throw the ball around," the Harlequins man said. "We wanted to play, that's the new philosophy we've got.
"We play if it's on. The tries that Ben Youngs and Chris Ashton scored [in last week's Test win over Australia] were off the cuff. But players are backing themselves and that's the philosophy we've got here; if you back yourself and it's on, then the whole team is behind you."
If true it marks a considerable sea change in English thinking. After the Six Nations, Delon Armitage could be heard complaining that a welter of safety-first instructions from the manager, Martin Johnson, had left him "playing like a robot".
Today Johnson did not recognise Care's new philosophy, insisting: "I don't think so. It's having that confidence and belief in yourself. We've always backed the guys to have a go for it. We should have backed ourselves a bit more in the second half."
The England manager did, however, list some of those who had impressed on tour and who would be bucking for places in the 32-strong elite squad that he will name next month and which will obviously underline his World Cup thinking. "We got better and better all tour, but didn't quite make it at the end," Johnson said. "So many things have come out of the tour – player-wise, team-wise – it's a bit annoying not to have finished it off."
Listed on Johnson's roll call were the obvious candidates such as Youngs and Dan Cole, but the locks Dave Attwood and Geoff Parling plus Dan Ward-Smith, and Phil Dowson and Brad Barritt, two who had to be called up from the Saxons, all got honourable mentions.
There also seemed to be special praise for Charlie Hodgson, the Sale fly-half who took plenty of stick when England were in New Zealand at the start of the Johnson era. Then Johnson selected the squad but did not travel and the unhappy tour was under Rob Andrew, director of elite rugby.
Andrew's finger was pointed in Hodgson's direction when it came to poor defending, but Johnson seemed to be making a point when he said: "He really controlled the game, which is what you want your No10 to do. He showed maturity and stood up to the physicality as well."
Johnson might have added that it was after Hodgson got a bang on the head and was replaced by Shane Geraghty that England lost the plot. Gear had run in two tries at the start of the second half, and England's patience and structure vanished with the Sale fly-half. Maori scored 18 unanswered points to round off a centenary that had seen them also beat Ireland and New Zealand Barbarians.
Johnson was frustrated with the result. "It rankles losing that game because there was a definite chance to win it," he said. "I am a bit grumpy. We said international rugby is brutal and at times people didn't do their jobs well enough in the second half for us to be able to win."
New Zealand Maori Robinson; Maitland, Sweeney , McAlister, H Gear; Brett (Ripia, 58)), A Smith (Tipuna, 58); Newland ( Murray, 65), Flynn (Coles, 58), Afeaki, Triggs (Ross, 66), Hoeata, Lowe (Bourke, 65), Latimer, Messam (capt).
Tries Gear 3, Messam. Cons McAllister 3. Pens McAllister, Ripiea 2.
England D Armitage; Strettle, Tait (Foden, 68) ,Barritt , Ashton ; Hodgson (Geraghty, 48), Care (Youngs, 59); Flatman, Chuter (Webber, 48), Doran-Jones (Cole, 59) Attwood (Ward-Smith, 59), Parling, Robshaw (capt), S Armitage (Haskell, 59), P Dowson.
Tries S Armitage, Care, Ashton. Cons: Hodgson 2. Pens: Hodgson 3.
Referee Craig Joubert (SA).
