Maro Itoje’s England have been urged to cement their place in sporting legend by becoming only the nation’s ninth side to defeat the All Blacks.
England head into Saturday’s crunch encounter as marginal favourites, aiming for a first Twickenham win over New Zealand for 13 years, and George Ford has revealed that the former captain Jamie George has issued a call to arms, imploring his teammates to carve themselves a slice of history.
Steve Borthwick’s side are on a nine-match winning run but England’s men have lost their past three Tests against New Zealand and have not beaten them since the 2019 World Cup semi-final. The last time they defeated the All Blacks at Twickenham was in 2012, when Manu Tuilagi ran riot.
Saturday’s match is the 47th meeting between the sides and England have triumphed on eight occasions in the fixture’s 120-year history but Borthwick’s troops sense their opportunity to make a name for themselves.
Since 2012, New Zealand have won four of the five Twickenham games while the 2022 match ended in a draw. Addressing England’s wait for a home victory, the fly-half Ford said: “It’s a long time ago, isn’t it? It makes me feel old.
“There’s only been eight ever. It’s like: ‘Come on, let’s have a ninth now. 100%. Let’s change that.’ Jamie mentioned something to the team earlier. The last time England beat New Zealand at Twickenham was 2012. And people still go on about 2012. And then [Jamie] flipped it and said: ‘This is the opportunity we have in front of us. Why can’t we be the next team, 2025, that they talk about?’ The New Zealand game at Twickenham, 13 years ago, was the last one. It’s definitely part of my motivation.”
Ford, who missed two late chances to kick England to victory a year ago, is one of six members of England’s squad who appeared in the 2019 World Cup semi-final and believes the class of 2025 must carry the fight to the All Blacks in order to repeat the trick. “There is a belief, 100%, you can feel that in the week,” he said. “And you are exactly right. You’ve got to go at a team like this in every area of the game. When we’ve got the ball, we’ve got to go at them. And when they’ve got the ball, we’ve got to go at them. The kicking game, the set piece, we’ve got to go at them.”
England lined up in a V-formation to face the haka before the 2019 semi-final, while for last year’s 24-22 defeat they advanced to the halfway line, much to the delight of the Twickenham crowd. Asked if England had any plans to counter the haka, the tighthead prop Joe Heyes said: “I don’t think so, no. Let’s hope our rugby [gets the crowd going]. When our backs are against the wall or we’re going well, the crowd here really does rev you up and it does help because you are blowing. You kind of forget they’re there sometimes and to know they’re there supporting you is massive for us.”
The All Blacks, meanwhile, will be looking to silence the crowd, according to the captain, Scott Barrett, who admitted the All Blacks are still haunted by the 2019 defeat. Barrett also conceded he was not surprised that England are rated as favourites despite the All Blacks recent streak of form in this fixture.
“Noise is ultimately a distraction that you can be frustrated by but we’ll be using that as fuel,” said Barrett. “There are a lot of Kiwis over here but a damn sight more English who would be singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot at the end of the game if we’re down. We can use that as fuel.
“Looking back at the past few games we’ve had against England and it’s been within a one score game so if history is anything to go by it’s going to be a heck of a Test match and we’ve certainly got some scars from the English going back to the 2019 World Cup. Certainly we don’t want to go there again.
“Every All Black wants to win a World Cup – that’s the dream – so to have the rug pulled from underneath you by England, it certainly leaves a scar. For us it’s about taking the strengths we’ve built upon this season, and built upon, playing with confidence and putting in the performance tomorrow night we’re proud of.”
