England fall just short on Sam Burgess' return

IT IS the hope that kills you; all that hype about how Sam Burgess' return was going to help kickstart a bright new era under Wayne Bennett.

In the end, this was a depressingly familiar story, with England coming up short in the final reckoning.

The hosts dominated field position early on in their Four Nations opener but struggled badly to make it pay and New Zealand gradually established a foothold on proceedings.

A 65th-minute drop-goal by Kiwis star Shaun Johnson settled the match and means England must now beat Scotland and Australia if they are to reach the final at Anfield on November 20.

England stand-off Gareth Widdop, who grew up in Halifax supporting the Bulls, said: "It was certainly a disappointing result in the end – but I think we showed some good signs particularly early on.

"We had a lot of pressure and we just couldn't get over the line. Some things didn't go our way and our discipline hurt us with the penalties we conceded.

"We didn't have any ball in the last 20 minutes of the first half but, to the boys' credit, the effort was great and that's all you can ask for.

"We were separated by a field goal in the end – but we will look at the game and see where we can try and improve to put in an 80-minute performance."

There were Bradford links pretty much everywhere you looked at Huddersfield on Saturday.

Five players nurtured in the Bulls academy – Sam, Tom and George Burgess, Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman – featured for England alongside ex-Bradford scrum half Luke Gale.

Legendary former Bulls prop Paul Anderson stood pitchside during the game as a member of Bennett's backroom staff, while Jamie Peacock is serving as England's team manager.

Chris Caisley, who as chairman presided over the most successful period in the Bulls' history at the advent of Super League and into the early years of the new millennium, was also present.

He still manages the Burgess boys and had been hoping to see Sam mark his international comeback with a victory.

The three brothers, arm in arm, sung the national anthem with gusto before kick-off at a sold-out John Smith's Stadium.

Sam started at loose forward with Tom and George on the bench, while Bradford-born Bateman and Whitehead formed the second-row pairing.

It was a big chance for Gale to make the most of his opportunity to stake a claim for the number seven jersey alongside Widdop.

Sam Burgess typically led from the front from the start, forcing Kiwis prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to cough up the ball with a crunching tackle that set the tone for a no-holds barred first half.

England dominated the opening 25 minutes but only had two penalties from the boot of Widdop to show for their admirable efforts.

But the Kiwis' pressure finally told six minutes before the break when Johnson and Jordan Kahu combined to create the space to work Jordan Rapana over at the corner.

That enabled the Kiwis to turn around 6-4 in front – and they doubled their score within two minutes of the restart when Johnson intercepted Widdop's pass to touch down in the right corner.

Kahu added the difficult conversion but England responded immediately, with Jermaine McGillvary taking Whitehead's pass and wrong-footing the defenders to cross in the right corner for a try goaled by Widdop.

At that point Bennett opted to give his skipper a breather and, from having all three Burgess brothers on the pitch, there was none and perhaps it was no coincidence that they conceded a third try in their absence.

A superb offload from substitute forward Manu Ma'u got Rapana into space and he trampled over Jonny Lomax to score his second try.

Kahu's conversion attempt rebounded off an upright, which kept England within a score, and it was all square on the hour after a couple of instinctive plays.

An overhead flick pass from Widdop got winger Ryan Hall into his stride and his diving, one-handed finish brought him his 29th try in as many appearances for his country.

Widdop's touchline conversion made it 16-16 – but Johnson edged his side back in front with a 65th-minute drop goal which, despite the efforts of Burgess, proved to be the final act of a pulsating match.