Stuart Lancaster insisted England are “not far away” from New Zealand despite his side’s 24-21 defeat to the world champions at Twickenham on Saturday.

England took a deserved 14-11 lead into half-time after Jonny May had scored a superb early try but the All Blacks dominated the second half despite losing hooker Dane Coles to the sin bin.

Tries from Kieran Read and Charles Faumuina put the visitors out of sight before a penalty try for England at the death gave a kinder look to the scoreline.

New Zealand’s fourth win over England this year suggests Lancaster’s team have some way to go if they are to triumph at next year’s World Cup but the head coach remains optimistic.

“We’ve played them four times now this year and we haven’t got the right result but we don’t feel we’re far away,” Lancaster said.

“We’ve got some good players watching the game today so we’ll keep our confidence and maintain the direction in which we’re going.

“In the first half, we were pretty close if not level.

“The All Blacks have played eight games and had two-and-a-half months together since we last played them and I thought we put them under pressure.

“We created opportunities in attack but obviously there’s a period of play they constructed that shows why they have the experience to close out a game like that.

“That’s what we’ve got to get.”

England could have been further ahead in the first half but squandered a handful of excellent opportunities.

The best chance fell to full-back Mike Brown, who look destined to score in the corner but dropped Kyle Eastmond’s pass with the line at his mercy.

Lancaster, however, was keen to stress the positives.

“We’ve had one-and-a-half week’s preparation and we’ve got young lads who are 20 and 21 years old making their debuts at Twickenham against the All Blacks — that’s a positive,” he said.

“The performance of the pack was excellent — it couldn’t have been far off 100 per cent lineout. We put a lot of pressure on their ball and there was some good rugby on show in the first half.

“We missed one opportunity in the first half which could have made a difference.

“We need to work on the accuracy of our kicking, the pressure we put on ourselves playing in and around our halfway line.

“When the weather turned New Zealand maximised that opportunity well and when the hooker was in the sin bin they managed that well as well.

“We couldn’t get the territory to get close to them in the second half.”