Steve Borthwick has called on his side to prepare for “pain and suffering” if they are to end their losing run against the All Blacks, demanding the most selfless England team in history in the showdown on Saturday.
Predicting an aerial bombardment from New Zealand, Borthwick has recalled George Ford, insisting his fly‑half general “will be an England coach in the future”, and again loaded his bench with the “Pom Squad”, including six British & Irish Lions among his replacements.
Freddie Steward returns at full‑back and Borthwick has stacked his bench with Ellis Genge – who was captain last week –Luke Cowan‑Dickie, Will Stuart, Tom Curry, Henry Pollock and Marcus Smith; all of whom toured Australia with the Lions during the summer.
England have not beaten New Zealand since the 2019 World Cup semi-final and lost three narrow encounters against them last year. The All Blacks are unbeaten in five Twickenham games, a run dating back to 2012. Borthwick’s team are marginal favourites with the bookmakers, however, after a run of nine successive wins but the head coach has laid bare the depths his players will have to reach to achieve victory.
“There is no doubt here that this week, playing against New Zealand, this team is going to have to dig very, very deep,” Borthwick said.
“This team is going to have to go to a place where there is pain and suffering. There is going to be this need to keep running, a need for this to be the most selfless team performance England have produced, because that’s how good New Zealand are.
“The players are going to have to give absolutely everything of themselves and I think you see a team that plays more and more with their heart and you see just how hard the team runs.”
Ford’s return at fly-half comes after he sat out the victory against Fiji last weekend, with Fin Smith dropping out of the matchday squad. The 32-year-old Ford endured a torrid time in the 24‑22 defeat last year, missing two late kicks at goal, but has been in fine form for Sale this season after celebrating his 100th international cap on the summer tour of Argentina.
Borthwick said of Ford: “He’s a phenomenal player. I’ve gone on record as well saying that many years from now he’s going to be a brilliant coach. He’s the kind of character and has such a great understanding of the game, I would not be in any way surprised to say he’d be England coach at some point in the future. I think he will be, if that’s where he chooses to go. So having a player and a person of that kind of understanding, calmness, leadership is phenomenal.”
In total Borthwick has made seven changes to the side that defeated Fiji 38-18 with Maro Itoje returning as captain. Ollie Chessum and Tommy Freeman have been ruled out with foot and hamstring injuries respectively – Borthwick confirming that the latter will miss the rest of England’s November campaign.
Alex Coles keeps his place in the second row in Chessum’s absence while Tom Roebuck is fit again to start on the right wing. Sam Underhill, Fin Baxter and Jamie George also come into the side. On Monday the All Blacks head coach, Scott Robertson, predicted a kick-heavy gameplan from England but Borthwick countered, insisting New Zealand will waste little opportunity to go to the skies.
“What’s been really clear is that New Zealand, when they have played against England in the last three games, have kicked the ball a lot,” Borthwick said. “Every game it has spiked how much they have kicked. Last year at Twickenham, they came and the first thing they did is go, ‘right we are kicking this ball’.
“I’d be interested to see very early on if they are going to go with this strategy, maybe they will pick Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie in the team together this weekend and come with that plan. Going back to the nature of Test rugby, it is that tactical element of it and it will be interesting to see if that’s what Scott Robertson has asked his team to do.”
