England suffered a 24-10 defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the opening game of their Four Nations campaign.
Steve McNamara’s men fell behind after just four minutes when Junior Sa’u went over in the corner and Benji Marshall added to the lead with an 18th-minute penalty.
Six minutes before the interval England were deep in trouble when a fluent attack ended with Lance Hohaia skating in by the posts, with Marshall adding the conversion.
The game seemed to be over early in the second half when Shaun Kenny-Dowall crossed for the hosts’ third try, with another Marshall conversion making the score 18-0.
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However, England then hit back with two tries in three minutes, with both James Roby and Gareth Widdop going over and Widdop converting his own score to reduce the deficit to eight points.
The Kiwis made sure of the victory with 14 minutes left to play when Marshall rounded off a fine display with a try of his own, converting to take his personal tally to 12 points.
Meanwhile in cricket, Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif has withdrawn his appeal against a provisional ICC suspension relating to recent allegations of spot-fixing on the tour of England.
Asif was provisionally suspended by the game’s governing body along with Test captain Salman Butt and fellow seamer Mohammad Amir after newspaper reports that the trio had acted in association with illegal bookmakers to deliver no-balls during the Lord’s Test match.
The trio initially took up the option of appealing their bans and the cases of Butt and Amir are due to be heard in Doha at the end of the month.
In football, Everton duo Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman have put pen to paper on two-year contract extensions to keep them at Goodison Park until the summer of 2014.
Right-back Hibbert and midfielder Osman, both 29, have spent the whole of their careers to date with the Toffees and are more than happy to stay put.
Meanwhile, Portsmouth administrator Andrew Andronikou remains confident that the club will escape the threat of liquidation, despite dire reports suggesting that the end could be near.
A disagreement with former owner Alexandre Gaydamak has threatened the future of the crisis-torn South Coast outfit, but Andronikou is trying to remain upbeat.
