Kyle Sinckler has lifted the lid on the “surreal” team meeting that left him certain England would beat the All Blacks and reach the World Cup final in 2019, labelling the two sides’ first meeting since then “big-boy rugby”.
Eddie Jones famously brought a samurai sword into the meeting and sliced kiwi fruit in two in an effort to convince his squad how New Zealand could be beaten. Sinckler, fresh from scoring a try in the quarter-final win over Australia, remembers that the whole squad was transfixed by Jones’s left-field move and that England were left in no doubt that they would beat the All Blacks six days later.
England lined up in a V-shape in response to the haka before kick-off and then proceeded to deliver arguably their best performance under Jones, with Manu Tuilagi scoring an early try in a 19-7 victory in Yokohama – the first time they had beaten the All Blacks since 2012.
Sinckler said: “We had a team meeting on the Sunday which is very strange. Normally Sunday is a day off, you never really see Eddie, but he called a players’ meeting at 9am. I’ll never forget that meeting, in terms of how we set the week up with our gameplan – putting pressure on them, we’re going at them, walking towards the danger. It was a surreal experience as we had no doubt after that meeting we were going to win.
“How many times have we seen [teams] walk towards the haka and New Zealand put 50 points on them? We felt if we were going to do that we needed to back it up. It was one of those rare moments in your career where everything went to plan.”
Saturday’s match will be the All Blacks’ first trip to Twickenham since 2018 and England have not beaten them at home since Tuilagi ran amok 10 years ago. New Zealand are on a six-match winning streak and, though Scotland gave them an almighty scare on Sunday, Sinckler, who first encountered the All Blacks when representing the British & Irish Lions in 2017, believes their physicality sets them apart.
He added: “They can do the flashy stuff but the nuts and bolts of their game are very impressive. That was one of the biggest eye-openers for me, when I first played New Zealand. Jesus, these guys are really physical. We’ve got to make sure we bring our ‘A’ game because, if we don’t, they are a world-class outfit. And, for me personally, it’s just ultimate gratitude to be in a position to do what I love. Big-boy rugby now!”
Sinckler has started both of England’s autumn matches to date having missed the back end of the Six Nations and the summer tour of Australia with a back injury. Jones recently said that, at his best, Sinckler is the leading tighthead prop in the world, but the 29-year-old revealed how debilitating his back injury had been as he makes his way back to top form.
“For me to be out there, pain-free, playing again and getting back to where I know I can get to, I’ve just got ultimate gratitude for that,” he said. “I had chronic, chronic pain. I’m very fortunate because I’m a professional athlete and we have good physios at the club, and I’ve got my own team outside. Every minute of the day was around my rehab and I just thought: ‘Imagine if you were just a normal person who had a family and were doing a nine-to-five and you were experiencing this stuff.’ I don’t know how they would get through that.
“My heart goes out to people dealing with chronic pain because there are some really dark times. I would think: ‘Am I ever going to play again?’ I was in so much pain. I couldn’t sit down. I couldn’t put my shoes and my socks on. I was literally bed-bound for three or four months.”
