‘Sorry NZ, we let you down’

Aaron Smith spoke for a shattered All Blacks team after their shock World Cup exit on Saturday night. The feeling was they had let their nation down and there was no escaping the agony of that realisation.

The experienced halfback, who tucked away his 91st test in the stunning 19-7 defeat to England at Yokohama’s International Stadium, was full of emotion after the New Zealanders’ first World Cup loss since their 2007 quarterfinal shocker in Cardiff.

It ended their hopes of an historic hat-trick of global crowns and propelled England into their first World Cup final since that ‘07 tournament in France.

Smith found time in the aftermath of the brilliant England tactical and physical ambush to Facetime partner Teagan, and the sight of her with their baby Luka was a brief moment of respite. But it was only fleeting.

‘‘Oh, man,’’ he uttered as the post-match inquisition unfolded. ‘‘Big year – it’s been a few years’ preparation for this tournament. I don’t know what to say . . . you feel like you’ve let everyone down.

‘‘I’m real gutted for New Zealand, real gutted for the boys in the room, and for the guys leaving. It’s just really disappointing.

‘‘But high performance sport isn’t fair, and we fell on that end of the stick tonight.’’

From Smith’s position at the base of a ruck beaten to the punch all night by the fabulous pair of young England flankers, Sam Underhill and Tom Curry, it had been an evening full of frustration.

‘‘They were great there,’’ he said of a one-sided breakdown battle.

Aaron Smith

‘‘It felt like in the first 30 minutes we were bending them and finding half-gaps but we were just missing key cleanouts. Their two loosies were all over the ball all night, they were at us at set piece, they were at us in our phase and they kept turning us around in their phase play attack by kicking a lot.

‘‘We just weren’t able to get out of our half at critical times. Any time we were getting any ascendancy we’d give away a silly penalty. It was a tough night but England were brilliant. They had a plan and they executed it.’’

Two factors swung it for coach Eddie Jones’ men. They were dominant in the tackle all night in a performance masterminded by former All Blacks coach John Mitchell and they crushed the All Blacks in the battle up front.

Smith told reporters to ‘‘ask a forward’’ about that arm-wrestle up front but admitted the All Blacks were taken out of their normally fluid attacking game.

‘‘We knew what was coming, we just got beat to the punch in key things. We couldn’t get anything. That’s rugby. Last week everything bounced our way; this week nothing did. You’ve got to make your chances.’’

Midfielder Anton LienertBrown was emotionally drained, but called on the All Blacks to regroup for the match no one wants to play – the dreaded playoff to avoid fourth spot.

He said it was ‘‘gutwrenching’’ to fall short of their goal at this tournament but credited England for ‘‘capitalising on their moments’’. He admitted the relentless physicality which never waned ‘‘frustrated us’’.

‘‘We set high standards, we know this is not where we want to be. This hurts and generally when it hurts that means we hit back hard. I know we’ll get up for this next game. We want to do our nation proud.

‘‘You can live life and can think ‘what if?’ or you can learn from this moment. All of us will learn from this moment. There are no regrets. We’ve got one more game to hit back hard and hopefully make our nation proud.’’

All things considered, they may have to wait a little longer for that.