Graphic: Must try harder: England stats, ratings and analysis

This is old-style rugby played with new-style muscularity, fitness and skill. This is a team content to bide their time, absorb the best the opposition have to offer, confident in the knowledge that when the time is right, they will strike. This is New Zealand 2008, winners of a British and Irish grand slam for the third time and the best team in the world.

Against them at Twickenham on Saturday were an England side of limited collective ability playing with heart, but balancing every moment of skill with equal parts of error. At this moment, on the basis of the international results accrued in the past month, you could argue that of the four home unions, England would struggle to be higher than fourth.

They resemble one of those massive oil tankers that travel for miles before executing their turning circle. England since 2003 have failed to find a way forward that suits their playing resources and national character. And now that Martin Johnson, the team manager, has tried to stop the constant flow of players through the system, to turn the ship round by identifying those he believes are the long-term future, he is finding rockier waters than even he may have feared.

The qualities offered by the All Blacks in the winning of the Hillary Shield have held good down the years: subdue and penetrate. Wales possessed them during the decade of the dragon, the 1970s; England had the same inner confidence as they built towards the 2003 World Cup. But there was an imperative this year to New Zealand: the need for a proven coaching team to justify their continued employment and proven players to show their countrymen that last year's World Cup was not to haunt them.

If there was a fear factor inspiring New Zealand, how much more should that have been true of England? But in a demanding autumn schedule they have not been able to impose any element of their game on the opposition, they have not reduced, never mind eradicated, the mistakes prevalent in their play and they have been unable to find a way of breaking down a well-organised defence.

We should not even argue that there might have been a different result had England not spoon-fed Dan Carter penalty opportunities so frequently that he was able to spurn 13 points from kicks and still laugh. Or if Nick Easter had scored the try at the start of the second half that seemed there for the taking until Mils Muliaina's despairing fingers threw the Harlequins No 8 off balance. Or if England had kept 15 players on the field throughout the 80 minutes. One yellow card is damaging, four is criminal, though it did seem that Alain Rolland, the referee, was keeping so careful an eye on England that New Zealand escaped deserved censure at the breakdown.

However, good teams make their own luck and England are not a good team. But even if England had been whiter than white, New Zealand would have raised their game.

You could sense the cogs engaging throughout the second half and the match-winning score was typical. Johnson had said that if England could still be in the match after an hour, anything could happen, and at 12-6 they were only a couple of minutes short of that goal. Then New Zealand broke them. They turned an England scrum as though it were routine. Jimmy Cowan flicked the ball away with a reverse pass from under the noses of England's wheeling back row and Conrad Smith straightened the line beautifully. Ma'a Nonu and Joe Rokocoko passed accurately and Muliaina sped into the corner.

Everything New Zealand did were core rugby skills, done accurately and at pace. To do it off England possession rubbed in the salt even farther, to do it when England believed that they may just have a chance was psychologically brilliant and the strength went out of English legs. They kept playing, they kept defending, but the belief was gone and when Carter offered what they call a “foot-pass” Down Under - a chip off the left foot almost flat, but over two defenders straight into Muliaina's hands - there could only be admiration for a player able to execute so precisely in the face of the onrushing enemy. That try was the result of building New Zealand phase play, the third came once more off England ball.

Johnson said England lacked composure, and they have done throughout the Investec Challenge Series, but only the best teams will let their opponents play knowing that they have systems in place to cope. So England were allowed to try to force the game and New Zealand read them like a book. For a century they have punished errors and this was no different.

When Tim Payne was robbed of the ball on New Zealand's 22, it was the hooker, Keven Mealamu, who burst away, offered a dummy and fed Sitiveni Sivivatu, whose pass gave Nonu a 60-metre run to the line and thereafter, New Zealand could indulge themselves. After 13 wins from 15 internationals this year, who could blame them?

Scorers: England: Penalty goals: Flood (17min), Armitage (49). New Zealand: Tries: Muliaina 2 (58, 66), Nonu (72). Conversion: Carter. Penalty goals: Carter 5 (15, 27, 37, 39, 62).

Scoring sequence (England first): 0-3, 3-3, 3-6, 3-9, 3-12 (half-time), 6-12, 6-17, 6-20, 6-25, 6-32.

England: D Armitage (London Irish); P Sackey (London Wasps; rep: D Hipkiss, Leicester, 73), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons; rep: D Cipriani, London Wasps, 75), R Flutey (London Wasps), U Monye (Harlequins); T Flood (Leicester; sin-bin, 43-54), D Care (Harlequins; rep: H Ellis, Leicester, 61); T Payne (London Wasps), L Mears (Bath; sin-bin, 24-34; rep: D Hartley, Northampton, 67), P Vickery (London Wasps; rep: M Stevens, Bath, 53), S Borthwick (Saracens), N Kennedy (London Irish), J Haskell (London Wasps; sin-bin, 32-43), M Lipman (Bath; rep: T Rees, London Wasps, 58; sin-bin, 76), N Easter (Harlequins; rep: T Croft, Leicester, 67).

New Zealand: M Muliaina; J Rokocoko, C Smith (rep: I Toeava, 69), M Nonu, S Sivivatu; D Carter, J Cowan (rep: P Weepu, 70); A Woodcock, K Mealamu, N Tialata (rep: J Afoa, 55), B Thorn (rep: A Boric, 69), A Williams, J Kaino (rep: K Read, 55), R McCaw, R So'oialo.

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).

Attendance: 81,180.