England's mantle as the world's premier rugby team took a major battering at Carisbrook, suffering a 36-3 mauling at the hands of the All Blacks.

The world champions had no answer to a new-look New Zealand team who took control of the test from the opening whistle and had the match sewn up when opening up a 30-3 halftime lead.

The All Blacks showed superior commitment and looked after possession far better on a cold, still night where handling was difficult.

They scored all three of their tries in the opening 33 minutes, threatening for much of the game to better their record winning margin over England - 64-22 at the same ground six years ago.

However, England regrouped in a far more even second half in which the only scoring was two penalties to All Blacks second five-eighth Daniel Carter.

Their first test back from the World Cup and the first under new coach Graham Henry and new captain Tana Umaga, the All Blacks looked more like a unit who had been playing together for years while the experienced English rarely showed the cohesiveness that saw them lift the World Cup last year.

Having lost twice - to Ireland and France - and placed third in this year's Six Nations championship, the English will need to improve massively in next week's second test at Eden Park to silence critics who believe they are on the decline.

Their two-win run against the All Blacks was broken, as was their 12-test winning streak against southern hemisphere super powers New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

With England's much-vaunted forward pack failing to stamp any authority, the backline looked surprisingly hesitant in the face of some aggressive defence, with fullback Josh Lewsey having messy night dealing with kicks.

Carter was successful with all his eight shots at goal for a 21-point haul while several other members of the much-vaunted All Blacks backline were able to show their wares, unlike in the grinding 13-15 loss at Wellington when the teams last met 12 months ago.

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