New Zealand 16 England 14: Hodgson to be disciplined as the final door slams in England’s face

Footage of the incident, which shows the former Hull KR player hurling himself through the closed door of a student flat and celebrating the destructive act, was thought to have been sent anonymously by one of the party-goers – not an England player – to TVNZ and posted on YouTube.

The incident came in the wake of England’s defeat to New Zealand which cost them a place in Saturday’s final in Wellington.

Hodgson, 25, who is to stay on in the southern hemisphere to take up a two-year contract with Canberra Raiders, was dropped for England’s final round-robin game after making his Test debut against Samoa in the opening game of the tournament in Brisbane and also playing in the defeat by Australia in Melbourne.

England issued a statement apologising for the incident and pledging to arrange for the repairs to be made to the door.

Canberra say they have been made aware of the incident, which they described as “unacceptable” and say that Hodgson will face a reprimand when he links up with the club later this week.

The England squad will fly to Wellington today before the Super League-based players board return flights for England via Sydney tomorrow.

England coach Steve McNamara spoke of his frustration after watching his side lose.

There was a touch of deja vu as New Zealand followed up their last-minute 20-18 win in last November’s World Cup semi-final with this triumph in Dunedin.

Ryan Hall’s controversially disallowed ‘try’ against Australia in Melbourne will come back to haunt England, but they will also feel cruelly denied by the woodwork at the Forsyth Barr Stadium, where Gareth Widdop’s first two conversion attempts rebounded off the uprights.

“We are frustrated,” said McNamara.

“We were a fingernail away last week and a width of a goalpost on a couple of occasions this week. We’ve been involved in three tremendous Test matches.

“They’re a young group and we’ve got some young players within that and to apply themselves the way they have done and to attack the competition the way they’ve done is a credit to them.”

Needing to win by 10 points to make the final, England’s task grew after conceding the first of Jason Nightingale’s two tries inside two minutes, but Hall and fellow winger Josh Charnley scored tries before half-time to keep them in contention.

Manu Vatuvei’s try early in the second half made it 16-8 and, although Hall grabbed a second to extend his record try haul to 24 in just 23 appearances, England once more came up just short.

“In the first half, I felt we started to get control but New Zealand are a very good team and they hit us with a couple of sucker punches,” said McNamara.

“We came out firing at the start of the second half but we just allowed New Zealand a couple of offloads that allowed them to get to the other end of the field a little bit too easily.

“Both teams were absolutely out on their feet. There was nothing left at the end. It was an unbelievable Test match. We’ll come back strongly from this.”

England spurned an opportunity to secure a draw with a last-minute kick at goal as they went for the all-important win and captain Sean O’Loughlin did not believe the 10-point target played on their minds.

“It’s disappointing but credit to our boys. We had a great dig at them but just fell short. ”

New Zealand captain Simon Mannering paid tribute to England’s battling efforts.

“They played some great footie, shifted the ball and chanced their arm and defensively put us under a lot of pressure,” he said.

“I thought we scrambled pretty well. We probably let some tries in that we should have stopped but we’re just happy to get the win.”

New Zealand: P Hiku, J Nightingale, S Kenny-Dowall, D Whare, M Vatuvei; K Foran, S Johnson; J Bromwich, I Luke, A Blair, S Mannering, K Proctor, J Taumalolo. Substitutes: T Leuluai, G Eastwood, M Taupau, T Harris.

England: S Tomkins; J Charnley, K Watkins, D Sarginson, R Hall; G Widdop, M Smith; G Burgess, D Clark, J Graham, L Farrell, J Tomkins, S O’Loughlin. Substitutes: Elliot Whitehead, B Ferres, T Burgess, C Hill.

Referee: P Bentham (England).

Leigh Centurions have threatened to report Leeds Rhinos to the Rugby Football League if they contact half-back Ryan Brierley.

Leigh claim “someone” from Leeds made a direct approach to Brierley, who is under contract until 2016.

But Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington has categorically denied “any interest” in the Championship player of the year and says it was Brierley’s agent who got in touch with Leeds.