Post-Match Reaction: England V NZ

We bring you the reaction from England's 16-13 first test win over New Zealand at Esher. Black Ferns coach Brian Evans and England's try-scoring winger Kat Merchant give us their views on the game ahead of the second test on Tuesday night.

New Zealand coach Brian Evans.

We played pretty well in the first half, especially given it was the first hit-out for the team since this time last year. But England came back at us very strongly and some of our younger girls panicked a little bit and made some mistakes. They arent quite used to the intensity of this level of rugby but that will come.

We were obviously under pressure in the scrum second half, we started to get smashed around a bit there and things sort of fell apart around it. We made some silly mistakes. Its disappointing for us but we take it on the chin. There was just three points in it so despite making a lot of basic errors that we need to learn from quickly, we weren't a million miles away. I thought our line-speed on defence was very good, especially in the first half so we have lots of positives too to take from it.

Englands try-scoring winger Kat Merchant(pictured)

There was probably more space for me in the first half than you are used to getting as a wing at that level so getting a few runs in early was great for me to get into the game.

At half-time we talked about how we needed to just be calmer, hit it up a bit more and let ourselves get settled up front before moving it wide and I thought we went out and did that very well. Everyone improved and even though we had players out of position we really stepped up.

You always want to score tries as a winger and I have always wanted to score against New Zealand s it was a really nice feeling to get one in the second half. The win will give us confidence but at the end of the day it was a three point win which shows it could have gone either way so nothing will be taken for granted.