England like KGB interrogation

England are rugby’s equivalent of a Russian KGB agent.

They are happy to sit for hours in a windowless room, knowing the longer they do so, the more likely it is their opponent will crack.

They know if they are patient, their enemy will give something up, reveal too much just to break the tension.

Not many people warm to KGB agents. Not many respect the craft; the discipline and strategy it takes to patiently yet relentlessly break someone down and have them yield what they vowed they never would.

But Russians presumably like the KGB — or FSB, as it is known these days — even if they don’t publicly celebrate or even acknowledge the work of the covert agency.

It’s all about mindset and expectation. If the former is built exclusively on existing to get results, and the expectation is that they won’t come easily or quickly, then a victory, however and whenever it comes, is a job well done.

Playing England at Twickenham, as the All Blacks will do on Sunday, really is the rugby equivalent of being interrogated by the FSB at their notorious Lubyanka headquarters.

There will be 82,000 people there who don’t care how victory happens, as long as it does.

And for the All Blacks to survive the ordeal, they have to accept now the game almost certainly won’t flow the way their last two have in Japan.

They will have to accept the nature of the next contests against England and Ireland will be different to any they have played so far this year, even the two against South Africa.

England will defend strongly across the field. They won’t budge in the scrum and they probably won’t see a lineout go astray.

At the tackled ball, they have been vulnerable this year, but against the All Blacks, they will keep things tighter, be more conscious of ball carriers becoming isolated and use the first receiver to take contact almost every time. It will be slow going but it will be effective and the pressure will build on the All Blacks.

England will hold the ball for long periods, they will look to drain the All Blacks on defence and they will be happy to kick long for territory and let the crowd revel in the slow but meticulous dissection.

It’s not that England lack attacking prowess or creativity. But what they have is a mindset that says they won’t show that part of their hand until they have battered the All Blacks first with a physical onslaught.

The hardest part for the visitors will be to not become frustrated. That’s what England want; for the All Blacks to lose their discipline and patience as a result of not being able to generate speed and width to the game and turning it into the aerobic contest they crave.

They want the All Blacks to feel the despair of that windowless room and fear they are never going to get out of it unless they try something high risk.

The All Blacks’ natural psyche is to believe the best way to approach this test is to try to run England off their feet in the first 30 minutes and break the game open early. England want an arm wrestle, so don’t give them one.

But as much as that will be the natural inclination of a side that has scored more than 100 points in its last two tests, it can’t be the road they follow.

They have to accept they are going to have to give England what they want to some degree.

The All Blacks are going to have to be prepared to be just as patient as England — build the pressure and lower the risk factor.

It will mean kicking for goal more than they have this season. It will mean playing for territory and using the forwards to smash up the middle more.

The smart plan is to play the long game — accept that it will take 70 minutes of graft and grappling to open a 10-minute attacking window at the end of the game.

Play with control from the start and inevitably the game will open up in the final quarter.

Inevitably the All Blacks will create the aerobic contest they want and give themselves the chance to score tries down the home straight.

England will be playing that long game and not care once about the optics, because for them, the result is the only thing that matters.

The All Blacks have to take that same attitude to London.

The hardest part for the All Blacks will be to not become frustrated. That is what England want.