Kiwis wing Shaun Kenny-Dowall scores in the corner for the only try of the game in his side's win over England.

The Kiwis have levelled the test series against England at 1-1 after winning 9-2 in London on Sunday morning, but it all came down to one crucial decision.

The Kiwis were up 8-2 with eight minutes to go, thanks in part to a try from Shaun Kenny-Dowall two minutes into the second half, after Tohu Harris showed superb skill to pick up a ball down low with his finger tips, then pass it off to the winger.

But it looked as if England were right back in the match when James Graham appeared to score in the 72nd minute under the posts, landing on a loose ball.

JORDAN MANSFIELD/GETTY IMAGES Jordan Kahu's late drop-goal helped the Kiwis secure a 9-2 win over England at London's Olympic Stadium.

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Australian referee Gerard signalled the try but sent it upstairs and after numerous replays it was ruled out because the Bulldogs prop appeared to lose control of the ball.

That try and what would have been a certain conversion from Gareth Widdop would have made the game 8-8 for a thrilling finish.

However, Kiwis centre Jordan Kahu made certain of the result with a field goal a couple of minutes from time.

It means the series will come down to next weekend's game in Wigan.

Not surprisingly, both coaches had differing views or the incident.

"Obviously the referee gave a try, they looked at it a lot of times and obviously found a good enough reason to disallow it," England coach Steve McNamara said.

"James feels he scored the try and the on field decision was a try, so they much have found something conclusive to say it wasn't."

However, Kearney thought otherwise.

"I didn't see comprehensive downward movement from the hands, but that's football," he said.

"There were a couple of calls that didn't go our way last week and we were fortunate today.

"Hopefully we get an even share of the good luck next Saturday and the best team wins."

Kearney dropped a bombshell an hour before the game by announcing Kodi Nikorima would play halfback instead of Tuimoala Lolohea.

Having thrown his lot behind Lolohea partnering Peta Hiku in the halves, so much so that he sent him to Sydney to work with Hiku before the series, it was a big call to put an untested combination together in such a big game.

However, it was a move that paid off and it's likely he'll stick with the young Bronco for next weekend's game.

It was a marked improvement all round from the Kiwis and Kearney said there had been the required change in attitude from that 26-12 defeat in Hull.

"The attitude we had in defence was the big difference," he said.

"It's pretty easy to say that with a scoreline of 9-2, but I thought right from the kickoff there was a difference in intensity, commitment with our defence.

"As I touched on earlier in the week it needed to improve because the English side played very well in the first test, they've a very good footy team and we needed to treat them with the respect they deserve.

"That's through a commitment in defence and I thought the boys did that pretty well."

McNamara said he was proud of the commitment of his players, but the time spent on defence meant they weren't as explosive on attack.

"There are two parts to the game and we defended really well again," he said.

"But the problem was we did too much of it and too much of it on our own goal line.

"Obviously where we gave them possession with our last plays and some of the basic errors, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves.

"We didn't crack in defence, we conceded one try, but it limited us with the amount of energy we had with the ball."

AT A GLANCE

England 2 (Gareth Widdop goal). New Zealand 9 (Shaun Kenny-Dowall try; Issac Luke goal, Jordan Kahu goal). HT: 2-2.