The last cut is the deepest

Geoffrey Nicholson watches as England play into the gifted hands of the enemy

The thought is unworthy, I know, but it needs to come out into the open: some of us do not have England's best interests at heart. There are those from the far side of Hadrian's Wall, Offa's Dyke and the Irish Sea who do not respond warmly to their narrow power play, corporate attitudes and laddishness. Frankly, we would not care if their sweet chariot swung even lower and sank into the sunset. There, I've said it, and I feel better for it.

It was too much to expect that England's limitations would be exposed by Italy; they had their own to cope with. But we had higher hopes of these New Zealanders - even harder men, but with a consummate native skill and a style. With or without Jonah Lomu, who pulled the rug from under them in the World Cup. And, as it turned out, with Lomu, since he recovered from his injuries but without regaining his form. Yet after only three minutes, during which the England loose forwards burst through the New Zealanders' defence, and with a second engagement on their goal-line beneath Mike Catt's dolly kick, you would have sworn England would be around to plague the Celts for years to come.

While making allowances for an arbitrary Barbarian selection, this was a side the All Blacks might confidently have put into the field on a day when a few of their first choices were injured. If this team could be made to look unorganised and undisciplined, then what might England do to the rest of the home countries?

Five minutes later the script was re-written. Lee Stensness, the Barbarian centre, kicked through to the corner on Lomu's wing. England, under pressure for the first time, scrambled the ball into touch. And, from a quick Barbarian throw-in, Robin Brooke fielded and dived over for such a soft try that it was England who looked embarrassingly inept.

So it went on, with form alternatively peaking and plunging in a fight for short-term supremacy, but never for overall mastery. The play was too loose and unplanned on the Barbarians' side and, on England's, too many passes went to ground and too many would-be touch-kicks from Catt fell into enemy hands. Which did not make the play any less entertaining.

It was rare that Lomu played any decisive part, and when he went back in a stately fashion to retrieve the ball, it emphasised how far he was from full fitness. But there were two fine Barbarian tries, full of speed and sinuous running, the first from Andrew Blowers in support of his stand- off Andrew Mehrtens, and then, when Mehrtens went off injured, by replacement Carlos Spencer, who showed such verve and acceleration that he must put the other's position under threat.

England were not upstaged when Jon Sleightholme and Tim Stimpson produced two tries, which put them six points ahead early in the second half, but it was the tackling of their backs and back row, when they could lay hands on the New Zealanders, that was their main weapon.

This was so wholehearted that, against the grain perhaps, it was hard not to be a little sorry for England when their carefully defended world fell apart in the final minute. Especially when the Barbarians' final try, coming from Joeli Vidiri, stemmed from an outrageously forward pass. In the end little was proved about England's state of readiness for the Five Nations. They need not feel depressed; but neither need the Celts.