Blackheath had the better of the opening 20 minutes and only some excellent All Blacks' defence, and errors at crucial times by the hosts, prevented them scoring on three separate occasions.

The All Blacks struggled to make an impression and it took nearly half an hour for a scoring opportunity, No 8 Sam Hocking stopped just short of the line.

However, the All Blacks did take the lead in the 34th minute. Hilton stole a Blackheath lineout close to halfway and the ball was moved swiftly from right to left. Blindside flanker Josh Lord made an incisive run and centre Ryan Westren took the scoring pass to cross in the corner. Yapp missed the difficult conversion..

The All Blacks dominated the start of the second half and after four minutes a break by full back and captain Mal Roberts – returning to the side after serving a two-match ban – earned good field position, before centre Steve Perry sent winger Ben Turner away to cross under the posts, Yapp converting.

Humphries opened Blackheath's account in the 63rd minute with a penalty, but the All Blacks seemed to clinch victory when scrum half Ed Lewsey crossed for a third try after winger Jon Fabian had made good inroads into the Blackheath defence, and Yapp's simple conversion made it 19-3.

Blackheath then made a double substitution, and it the game changed!

Replacement winger Tyson Lewis showed tremendous speed and footwork to race in off the left flank for a 73rd minute try, converted by Humphries; and that was quickly followed by right winger Danny Caprice's superb 60 metre dash down the touchline and around Roberts to dot down behind the posts, giving Humphries the simplest of conversions.

With the match entering the eighth minute of injury time, All Blacks lock Ben Hilton was adjudged offside at a ruck on the halfway line, when he thought the ball was out, and Humphries kept his nerve to smack over a superb 50 metre penalty.

Jon Hill reportedly commented after the match "You don't give the referee any opportunity to give a penalty against you when you are two points up, yet we did it three times on the bounce" — and paid the price!

Blackheath: P Humphries, D Caprice, R Windsor, M Leek (capt), M Staten, M Vaughan (T Lewis 66), L Baldwin (B Ibrahim 69), S Legg (R Paddick 69), G O'Meara, N Winwood, T Bason, J Giles, R Pike, J Catt (T Lawy 47) and G Jones. Replacement not used: R Herring.

Scorers: Tries, Lewis, Caprice; Cons: Humphries (2); Pen: Humphries (2).

All Blacks: M Roberts (capt), J Fabian, R Westren, S Perry, B Turner, T Yapp, E Lewsey, T Mathias, D Semmens, N Bayliss, B Hilton, B Jenkins (G Fleming 80+2), J Lord, M Rawlings and S Hocking (D Kimberley 70). Replacements not used: J Bolt, T Hurdwell, L Paterson.

Scorers: tries: Westren, Turner, Lewsey; Cons: Yapp (2).

Referee: Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts (RFU).