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Maybe someone wants to set up a Facebook support group for the myriad players and fans in the world of rugby who think they have beaten all blacks to end up with nothing. Springbok standing arm in arm with Irishman and Englishman. U ok hun. Big hugs. Xbadx.
This was the 20th time since the 2011 World Cup that New Zealand has been behind at half-time in a Test. They have lost only four of those.
Comebacks everywhere, plenty from a long way back: 22-7 behind against Ireland in November 2013 before winning 24-22; coming from 17 points down against South Africa last month, with 12 points down with four minutes to go; 15 points down here on Sunday with England crawling and hope springing and swinging carts.
You do not fluke these things. Neither was England's early advantage anything but entirely deserved. In a contest worth waiting 1,463 days ago, they started a different universe.
They were ferocious, disciplined, relentless in pace and wonderfully clinical. Chris Ashton finished like Twickenham remembered by Chris Ashton finishing. The maul which brings the second try to both gloriously unprecedented and more cantering than rolling.
A game of fine margins
To see the world champions trampled underfoot made in the giddy booths and the half-cut delirious. Had England finished as if they were going to be another one of the following year.
They came close. Instead, those same tight margins and calls that they had sprung them away. A line-out that had been dominant in the first half creaked and then cracked. Penalties that have been kicked to the corner rather than to the posts of the gamble requested. A drop-goal at the death was never called.
All of it was understandable. This is a callow from the world of the World Cup and is clear favorite for the next. Those penalties were out of wide and the torrential rain. The drop-goal, said skipper Owen Farrell afterwards, was coming before the ball was lost going wide.
'It was the right decision'
Many in the crowd thought it unfair, judging by the raucous boos that greeted the final whistle. Sam Underhill's late side-stepping has been more than just a thing of the past.
For those who have poetry ahead of practice it should have done. In the letter of the law it was instead the right decision. You might not agree with the idea that you should be able to do that, but they can not do it.
In those chaotic moments Against South Africa 7 days ago England got the benefit of the TMO's call in the last act of the game to come through as winners by a single point. On Saturday they did not, and they were left with a shiner rather than a try.
Eddie Jones spoke afterwards of being devastated. He is also wise enough to understand that his headlines are seldom the full story.
Another big lead lost
Just as the All Blacks have made a habit of pulling rabbits out of hats, so have the cat out of the bag.
In their first match against the opposing hemisphere in 2018 they have established significant leads in this field: 24-3 in the first summer Test against the Springboks, 12-0 in the second and 15-0 against the best around.
It might have been different had Farrell's attempted conversion of Ashton's hit the post, but no one could blame him for missing from the touchline. The mangled re-start after Damian McKenzie's trial at the end of the first half was rather more costly, creating the possession and pressure that led to Beauden Barrett's penalty a few minutes later.
They were grateful too much of Steve Hansen's men who did not come along often, not least Aaron Smith went on behind Ardie Savea when the open had an open try-line ahead of him.
"Sometimes the game loves you and sometimes it does not love you," said Jones.
"We had the chances to win the game but we did not take them, and they did, so they deserved to win the game."
Reasons to be hopeful for England
The All Blacks are not infallible. The Springboks made in Wellington and Ireland in Chicago. Some of this England team did so last summer in the jersey of the British and Irish Lions.
Neither, you got the sense all week, did this game mean you did it to the hosts. England had pined for this match-up for four years. You define yourself against the best, unless you are the best, in which case everyone is an underdog.
Maybe an England win would not have changed much at all going into the next World Cup. The team that beat the All Blacks six years ago went out in the group when it really mattered. The New Zealand team that fell to the second biggest defeat in their history went on to retain their crown in untroubled fashion.
Yet against a side that had won 10 of 11 this year, that had 819 caps in its starting XV compared to 440 caps and that was only one player handed out by the All Blacks in 2018 had been by 24; only one try conceded when the opposition had run into at least one of their past 12 matches.
"I think we showed a lot of character in a hostile environment," said coach Steve Hansen afterwards.
So too did England. An autumn that has started with the problems of the park has brought a sense of urgency. Saturday was close enough, for now.
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