Rugby comment by Martin Crowson: Spirited England gain respect of their fans

England silenced the boo-boys at Twickenham on Saturday with a show of commitment and spirit which comfortably ranked as their best showing this autumn.

They tackled their hearts out, hurried and harassed, and forced New Zealand into an amount of handling errors in 80 minutes they would normally make in four or five matches.

Unfortunately, endeavour alone does not win matches and 14 points from the boot of All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter helped them to a 19-6 victory.

Crucially, though, even in defeat, the England team won back the respect of their own fans – the very fans who had been so fed up with England's painfully lacklustre showing against Argentina the week before that they booed them from the field at half-time.

In the conservative confines of the wax-jacket brigade at Twickenham, that was some statement.

Saturday's game was a hard one to judge. Is a strong defensive showing, coupled with a passionate call to arms and some strong performances by Lewis Moody (again), Marc Cueto and (finally) skipper Steve Borthwick, genuinely cause for optimism?

The pint-half-empty brigade would point to the fact that New Zealand were rusty, Carter missed two easy penalties and that England did not really look like scoring a try all afternoon.

In fact, tries this autumn have been rarer than a northern accent on the Twickenham concourse. In 240 minutes of rugby this November, Martin Johnson's side have crossed the whitewash just once.

The most frustrating thing about the defeat by New Zealand was that they put themselves in good field position on numerous occasions, only to shoot themselves in the foot every time.

Following an excellent start, James Haskell dropped the kick-off after the home side had taken a 6-3 lead and then gave away a penalty for Carter to level the scores.

At 6-6 in the second half, England had a line-out on the All Blacks' 22 but messed it up, Matt Banahan ignored an overlap soon afterwards and chose contact as another chance went begging and then Jonny Wilkinson missed a drop goal from right in front of the posts when England had their best attacking position of the second half.

Cue 82,000 groans.

Knock-ons, poor decision-making and individual errors curtailed any other forays into the Kiwis' 22.

While England were profligate, the All Blacks were their typical clinical selves.

This was by no means a great performance from New Zealand but when they get opportunities they take them.

The only try came on 57 minutes as scrum-half Jimmy Cowan finished good work by Sitiveni Sivivatu and Richie McCaw.

After Cowan's try and Carter's conversion had made it 16-6, there was no way back for England. New Zealand stepped up a gear for the final 20 minutes and, apart from a clean break from Tigers' Tom Croft which Carter ended short of the line, England never got a look-in. It was a performance which recovered lost pride – but where does it leave England?

The injury-list Leicester legend Johnson was working with ahead of this series was not as bad as Leicester Tigers have had to endure this season but it has severely limited his options. The likes of Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage will be back for the Six Nations.

Johnson's cause has not been helped by fundamental errors from his team either. England have looked confused in what they are trying to achieve but he cannot make allowances for the sort of knock-ons and poor passes that have blighted this campaign.

"I think we have improved during this season," said Johnson after the game.

With the World Cup now less than two years away, the "improvement" Johnson alluded to must be visable in the Six Nations or it could be a long winter.