Hackney-born rugby star Courtney lawes believes England can take a lot of positives from their exceptional performance against New Zealand, writes Ziad Chaudry.

England came agonisingly close to topping the current World champions at a rain-drenched Twickenham, going down 16-15.

But the hosts were denied what could well have been a match-winning try by flanker Sam Underhill four minutes from time as it was controversially ruled out after television replays showed that Lawes was judged to be narrowly offside.

Tries from Chris Ashton and co-captain Dylan Hartley saw England storm into a stunning 15-0 lead after 25 minutes before the mighty All Blacks rallied together and claimed a dramatic victory.

“We really showed what kind of dominance we can put on a team even as good as New Zealand,” said the 29-year-old flanker who plays his club rugby for Gallagher Premiership outfit Northampton Saints.

“Any other given day we could have won that game. A bit disappointed not to win but we’ll move on and we’ll get better from it. We have plenty of positives, plenty of stuff to go on and continue improving.”

And Lawes gave his thoughts on his involvement which lead to Underhill’s disallowed try.

“I was just trying to keep focus on the next shot and I thought the next shot will obviously be the conversion but that quickly changed but such as rugby, you just get on with it,” he added.

England continue their Quilter Autumn Internationals campaign against 2019 World Cup hosts Japan this Saturday at Twickenham. Tickets are available at eticketing.co.uk/rfu/Events/Index or you can catch all the action on Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Main Event from 2pm.