Every tackle, turnover and successful dual was being celebrated long, loud and together by England’s players as they zeroed in on a first home win over New Zealand in 12 years.
The biggest cheer though was reserved for referee Angus Gardner, whose voice was broadcast NFL-style over the stadium speakers – a new innovation for this autumn – as he reviewed and ruled out a score by Beauden Barrett for Caleb Clarke’s knock-on.
However, England ultimately could not keep the visitors at bay.
The replacement front row – Fin Baxter, Theo Dan and Dan Cole – could not maintain their grip on the scrum and the penalty count ticked up against the home side.
Finally Tele’a, forced back into the fray after an injury to Beauden Barrett, pirouetted through Ford’s tackle and held off Harry Randall to dot down.
There was still time for more drama, but not another twist in the scoreline, as Ford planted a long, but straight penalty shot against the post and then clipped a last-gasp drop-goal wide.
In England’s last outing at Twickenham back in March, Smith had landed a final-play drop-goal from a similar spot to defeat Grand Slam-chasing Ireland.
This time, they could not muster the same accuracy and were left with a vastly different feeling as they tasted narrow and bitter defeat once again.
England: Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Lawrence, Freeman; M Smith, Spencer; Genge, George (capt), Stuart; Itoje, Martin; Cunningham-South, T Curry, Earl.
Replacements: Dan, Baxter, Cole, Isiekwe, B Curry, Dombrandt, Randall, Ford.
New Zealand: Jordan; Tele’a, Ioane, J Barrett, Clarke; B Barrett, Ratima; Williams, Taylor, Lomax, S Barrett (capt), Vaa’i, Sititi, Cane, Savea.
Replacements: Aumua, Tu’ungafasi, Tosi, Tuipulotu, Finau, Roigard, Lienart-Brown, McKenzie.