Two-try hero Stuart ‘set for finishing drills’

England’s hero prop Will Stuart is expecting finishing lessons this week despite spearheading the electrifying fightback that held New Zealand to a 25-25 draw at Twickenham.

Stuart, inset, the replacement tighthead who was making his first appearance because of a knee injury, emerged as the unexpected saviour at Twickenham by burrowing over twice from short range as the All Blacks crumbled in the final 10 minutes.

In doing so, he becamethefirstengland prop to score two tries in a single match, but his unconventional technique for scoringthefirstneededrepeat viewings from the TMO before being approved.

“Will’s got a special session on Monday – how to score a try.i’veneverseenaplayertry toputtheballbetweenhislegs and score a try, it’s the most unusual technique,” head coach Eddie Jones joked.

Bath’sgiantfrontrowwasat the forefront of a mighty display from England’s bench as the cavalry arrived to accelerate the All Blacks’ collapse from a position of total control, reflected by a 25-6 lead.

Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Dave Ribbans, Ben Youngs and Henry Slade also carried the fight to New Zealand, with Stuart’s 73rd-minute opener igniting belief defeat was avoidable.

“I nearly botched that first try completely and Eddie said I need to sort out my finishing drills, so I might be doing some of that with the wingers,” said Stuart, who was making his first appearance for six weeks because of a knee injury. “It was PTSD from (forwards coach) Richard Cotterill, because we’re used to presenting the ball as quickly as possible rather than scoring the try, so I just tried to snap the ball back as quickly as possible. Thankfully it did touch the ground at some point.

“I had quite a few family members down as well, so it was special to do it in front of them.

“All the lads who came on brought a big impact and it’s great to be part of a momentum swing like that, you can feel it. It’s exciting.

“Momentum in games is a weird thing because it’s so infectious. When you’re on the receiving end of it, it feels like everything is going wrong, and then when you start getting phases together and applying them, there’s no better feeling.”