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WAYNE Bennett praised the character and determination of his exhausted team in England after defeating New Zealand 18-16 in a captivating test at Hull.
A magnificent 12-minute solo try from center-back Oliver Gildart took a close win for hosts who were missing several key players, including Gareth Widdop, Sam Burgess and Kallum Watkins.
Gildart ran nearly 50 meters at KC stadium after exploiting a breach in Kiwi's defense following a brilliant unloading by John Bateman, who was heading to Canberra.
"It was a good try for the center, we do not see enough," Bennett said.
"He did a great job, 50 yards, beat two or three players down the road, it was great to watch."
New Zealand, fresh out of its win against Australia earlier this month, looked the best of two teams in the first half, missing 17 tackles before the break.
Despite that, the scores were tied 12-all in between, Sam Tomkins opening the scoring in the fourth minute.
The Kiwis fought back with the four pointers from Esan Marsters and skipper Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. They were well placed to qualify at the break.
But at halftime, England equalized the goals through a controversial penalty attempt when Jake Connor was found stranded as he crossed the finish line through the video control referee.
The center was blocked by Johnson and Watene-Zelezniak, but the skipper was penalized for his knee slip and test allowed.
England improved a lot after the restart and Bennett was delighted with the way his young team held up after the game against Gildart.
"I hope you all realize that you have a very special football team," Bennett said.
"The English should be really proud of them.
"It's a great group of guys, they work very hard. We could not have given more, we did not have a bad player.
"There are about 10 guys who have played in the World Cup who are not here, so we're building depth, which is important, and we're training a lot of eager young guys who really want to rock the cages of the Australia and New Zealand.
"It was a beautiful game and the boys gave everything. It was important that both teams play as we did today to show everyone that this was a complete series of tests.
"It's the best of three games and I'm convinced that next week will not be easier, it will be more difficult because New Zealand will want to win."
New Zealand coach Michael Maguire, who was dumb on his coaching future ahead of the announcement scheduled by the Wests Tigers this week, refused to get drawn into his thoughts on shot-on-goal. .
"I'll have to look again before making a comment, but it's one of those moments that you have to be able to handle and get through," Maguire said.
"The game was there to take for both teams. I think they've applied a little more pressure than us.
"We will take a good advantage, of course, from what we did two weeks ago to our current situation, showing that the difference between test football games is a matter of pressure.
The teams meet at Anfield for the second test next Monday (1:30).
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