It is 120 years since a New Zealand team first came to England, the inaugural All Blacks making their way to the British Isles via Montevideo and Tenerife. By the time the “Originals” arrived in London for a meeting with the national team, they had already played 24 matches, and the encounter moved from Blackheath to Crystal Palace to accommodate a spectatorship that some estimations placed at 100,000, many of them non-paying, with the future King George V among them.
Just another week? More than a century on, a visit from the All Blacks still stirs special feelings. England players have remarked, publicly and privately, of sensing an extra energy as they reassembled at Pennyhill Park on Sunday night after the win over Fiji – an excitement or “desperation”, as one individual put it. The Springboks may have knocked New Zealand off their perch with back-to-back world titles, but most of the England squad were raised in an age in which the All Blacks were close to unconquerable – that cloak of invincibility may have gone, but the old aura is difficult to escape.
Spread one’s hands to count the English victories in this fixture over the decades and decades and you would still have two digits to spare. Steve Borthwick’s rapidly-improving and ever-more-confident side arrive like a locomotive, steam engine powered by the coals of nine consecutive victories, but recognise that this will be a true test of their progress.
“We know New Zealand are a top-quality side,” Borthwick said this week. “They’ve been together for five months, have a core of centurions within that team.
“They’re ranked second in the world, and as [New Zealand head coach] Scott Robertson said on Monday, he’s been reminding his team about recent history. So they’re very clearly putting themselves as favourites going into the game. They’re very clearly talking about that in that way. We know it’s an incredible challenge against the second-best team in the world. We’ll give it all we’ve got.”
The three meetings between these two in 2024 underlined England’s year of incertitude. In each, they played well, generally, but had the rug pulled from beneath them in three consecutive final quarters in which they failed to register even a single point. Amid notable other missteps – Australia last November, Ireland at the start of the Six Nations – the pattern prompted a shift in strategy from Borthwick, now placing greater emphasis on a blend of bench strength, experience and expertise to steer England home.
This will be a true test of their progress and plan. There is no doubt that being able to bring on six British and Irish Lions as replacements is indicative of the depth developing within the squad, but England cannot afford to be played off the park before they arrive. The suspicion is that the hosts will have to take their chances in the opening hour in a way they have not in their opening two outings of November.
Still, though, they will recognise that this is not a New Zealand side of supreme strength. A scan of the side named by Robertson reveals the spine of centurions to which Borthwick refers – Codie Taylor, Ardie Savea, Beauden Barrett – yet also the fresh components of a Ship of Theseus under continual construction. Savea’s back-row partners, the imposing Simon Parker and explosive Peter Lakai, are taking their first formative strides at Test level, while the backline beyond Barrett and Will Jordan is low in terms of cap count – the All Blacks of old these are not.
And yet there should be caution to dismiss this as anything other than a high-class team. Wins over Ireland and Scotland have been hard-earned, but they have still displayed the intelligence and ingenuity that lurks within the ranks. Damian McKenzie perhaps best embodies those qualities, and continues in a closing role as counter to England’s bench strength; the playmaker may be smaller than some, but it is more often brains than brawn that has tilted the balance New Zealand’s way in this fixture. “The notion that these men beat us because of our physical degeneracy is nonsense,” the great sporting polymath CB Fry wrote back in 1905 of that first meeting on English soil. “They beat us by organisation and by tactics.”
England know they will have to push the bounds of body and mind. “There’s a team that’s going to have to go into a place where there is pain and suffering,” Borthwick challenged his charges this week. “There’s a need for this to be the most selfless team performance England have produced, because that’s how good New Zealand are.” Kevin Sinfield, the assistant coach, has been a key voice in underlining that message ahead of the fixture.
The home side will feel they can get a remodelled All Blacks backfield in the air. Borthwick had been pointed in bringing up how regularly Robertson’s side had kicked the ball in the three encounters in 2024, but the changes to the escorting law continue to make contestable kicks an ever more crucial area of conflict – Tommy Freeman’s autumn is over due to a hamstring injury, but expect to see Tom Roebuck and Freddie Steward employed as regular kick retrievers. New Zealand, meanwhile, may feel they can unsettle a lineout bereft of Ollie Chessum, even if the long-limbed Alex Coles is a more-than-adequate replacement alongside captain Maro Itoje.
Though much will be made of how England’s November hinges on this fixture, it feels pivotal for the tourists, too. The record defeat against South Africa still feels the defining memory of their 2025, contributing to a sense of continuing public unease over Robertson’s time in his role so far. They are chasing, too, a “grand slam” tour and a clean sweep of the home nations – not even the Original All Blacks managed that, losing to Wales in Cardiff two weeks after their win at Crystal Palace.
“We embrace where we are playing,” Robertson said. “The history of it is really important. We have to keep reminding ourselves of the legacy part of the All Blacks, the gift that has been given to us and our chance to add to it. Twickenham is a part of that.”
