Match Details: All Blacks v England, Saturday 6 July, 7.05pm NZT, Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin.
Played: 43 Won: All Blacks 33, England 8, Drawn 2
Last time: 25-25, 19 November 2022, Twickenham
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Teams:
Sevu Reece could do with not feeding any more ammo to the English
Captain Jamie George warned that New Zealand will quickly learn who England are after All Blacks winger Sevu Reece admitted that he did not “really know much about them” heading into the first test in Dunedin.
This is England’s first tour of New Zealand since 2014, when lock Brodie Retallick failed to name a single member of the travelling squad. There appears to be no greater level of awareness among the current All Blacks squad with Reece unable to identify the England wings Tommy Freeman and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso who he will be facing on Saturday.
“I don’t really know much about them (the England wings),” Reece said. “We have just been trying to be familiar with the way we want to play. We have seen them carry on from their World Cup and they go to their high balls a lot and we are ready for that. We have prepped really well.”
By contrast, England head coach Steve Borthwick has set all members of his squad homework assignments on the All Blacks, who have named Stephen Perofeta rather than the experienced Beauden Barrett at full-back.
George has faced New Zealand on six previous occasions and says the only way to earn the All Blacks’ respect is to beat them. “I’m not in their camp, I don’t know whether there is any mind games in what they are saying,” George said. “I know that that was certainly said in 2017 on the Lions tour. The message then was by the end of that series they are certainly going to know who we are. That is certainly the message again from me and this England team.
“We are a team that always wants to know our opposition. We want to know them inside out because we want to be able to pick them apart. That’s ultimately how we see the game. If they see the game differently and they want to focus on themselves, that’s great. Go and do your thing, we’ll see who works out best on Saturday.”
George’s record against New Zealand, including tests for the Lions, is won two, drawn two and lost two. With England bidding to secure only their third ever away victory against the All Blacks, George says that history is within their grasp as long as they start the game decisively.
“We can’t sit back and wait because if we do that, we’ll be behind our poles 20 points down trying to create some sort of comeback like we did in 2022 (which England drew),” George said. “We come to New Zealand to play our way, to take New Zealand on. We’ve come to New Zealand to win, so we’ll know whether we’re there on not within the first few minutes after kick-off.
“Walk towards it, embrace it, love it. What an amazing opportunity we have got here. It was 2003 the last time England won here. I said to the boys like we’ve got an opportunity to do something really special so that in 20 years’ time when we are sat at one of those dinners not really wanting to be there, they are going to be asking us about the victory.”
England’s last victory over New Zealand came in the 2019 World Cup semifinal when they faced the haka in a ‘V’ formation. George and the senior leadership group will meet on Friday to decide on how to respond to the haka at the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
“We are still having conversations,” George said. “It’s the players’ decision. Steve has said that it is entirely on us what we decide to do but we will probably make a decision tomorrow. The most powerful thing for me (in 2019) was looking up at the big screen and seeing our captain smirking. I don’t think I can pull off the (Owen) Farrell smirk.
“I think the most important thing regardless of what you do to the haka and regardless of what happens before the game, the first 10 minutes of a test match sets the tone. What we did was that we put our necks on the line in terms of doing something different and challenging and then we backed it up. That’s going to be the most important thing regardless of what we do.”
