JOSE: GERRARD BLEW TITLE BID

JOSE MOURINHO turned his mind games firmly on Steven Gerrard yesterday as the Chelsea manager prepared to renew hostilities with Liverpool. Mourinho advised Brendan Rodgers and his team against focusing on their calamitous end to last season — but not before reminding Gerrard of the enormity of his slip. ‘It gave the title to Man City, simple as that,’ said Mourinho. ‘Liverpool, with a point in that match, would have been champions. Without it, they lost the title. It meant nothing to us. After our defeat against Sunderland, that match meant professional pride. We were not in the race.’ Gerrard gifted Demba Ba the goal which shattered his best and, perhaps, final chance of winning the title. It was a seismic moment in Barclays Premier League history and in the football life of the Liverpool captain. Having beaten Manchester City a fortnight earlier, the Merseysiders were in control of their destiny. After losing to Chelsea, they surrendered a three-goal lead in a draw at Crystal Palace in the penultimate game of their

ENGLAND must go into today’s game with a mindset of scoring more tries than the All Blacks. They should aim to score a minimum of four tries to win. Any sense that they are only trying to contain, dominate territory, defend heroically and kick their goals will see them lose. It really is that simple. England have shown they have the organisation, discipline and pack to ‘stay’ in a game but Stuart Lancaster’s team must enter World Cup year with a team selected and coached to attack.

I had a saying ‘pressure with pressure’, meaning teams do not like playing against teams who can match their perceived strength. New Zealand have a team who create amazing pressure by their ability to attack from anywhere but sometimes this can work against them as we saw at Twickenham two years ago, when England beat them. So England must attack New Zealand, meet ‘pressure with pressure’.

As soon as the whistle goes, England must play at a ferocious tempo and maintain that for 80 minutes. They need to play faster than New Zealand and outsmart them. It can be done. Many have tried to defend a lead, most recently Australia and learnt the hard way that constantly attacking New Zealand is the best form of defence.

Today is a fantastic opportunity for the team because in many ways the scale of the injuries takes the pressure off. New Zealand would much prefer to play against a full strength, no-excuse England. Any top side would. Expectation levels are reduced for the home side but not in my view and it is possible to pull off a spectacular result.

The great thing for Stuart Lancaster is that he now has a chance to look at four or five players who he wouldn’t otherwise have picked against the best team in the world. England have four players who, if fit, would be in the team: Alex Corbisiero, Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury and Manu Tuilagi.

However it is not 15 vs 11, it is 15 vs 15, and those coming in have a chance to turn this game upside down.

This match more than any other will show if England have chosen the players who are good enough to play at the heights needed to beat New Zealand in World Cup year.

International rugby now goes in fouryear cycles, with the top teams peaking in year four — World Cup year. So this year we will see a different New Zealand from the team who turned up the last couple of years. England cannot be predictable and I really hope this group of coaches have instilled that in the players. If they haven’t, they will lose.

I remember my first year in charge in 1997 when we drew 26-26 with the All Blacks at Twickenham. We’d drawn one and lost two games going into the last match of the autumn and I remember challenging the team to score five tries that day. Lawrence Dallaglio was captain and we agreed we had to change things. We needed to completely shift our mindset to have a chance of beating them.

Paul Grayson had the game of his life, playing unbelievably flat to the gain line. The All Blacks just didn’t expect it. We ended up scoring three tries in the first 20 minutes in what turned out to be one of the best games of rugby ever played at Twickenham.

Of any team, because of their amazing tradition and the way they play the game, New Zealand are the one I grew up respecting more than any other in the world. That is the same today. But that does not make them unbeatable. Our team managed to dispel that myth and took some of their aura away by believing that man-for-man we were better than them.

THIS current crop need to take the same approach. Although England have been hit by injuries I think they can take confidence from the fact the All Blacks don’t seem to relish coming to Twickenham too much. I can’t recall a really dominant performance from them for a long time. But this is a special New Zealand side, even by their standards.

New Zealand have ball players from one to 15, they are more likely to score tries than any other team and that means even if you get ahead of them they know they have the skills to score seven or 14 points in a short period of time.

In England’s team, I am a big fan of Owen Farrell. I’d play him at 12 but with him at 10 and Kyle Eastmond at 12 you don’t have a second kicker, which is a concern. A second kicker would allow Farrell to play flat and give him a getout-of-jail option. Playing at 10 means he’ll have to sit deeper, which could negate England’s attacking options.

The All Blacks, along with Australia, are the most intelligent team in the world and England’s kicking game today needs to be absolutely spot on.

Without a natural kicker in the centres, a lot of responsibility will fall on Farrell for that.

From one to 15, every player should be excited about what they are trying to achieve going into this game and the coaches have to get that philosophy across about how they are going to play the game. I’ve never known a player who doesn’t deliver on a game plan.

This coaching team have to stand up. They’ve been together a long time and they have signed long-term contracts. It’s time for them to deliver with a game plan that is based on knockout, World Cup rugby. Rugby is awash with analysis and statisticians but one simple fact should be ingrained in their thinking — the team who score most tries will win this game.

As always, England will be faced with the Haka. It is a fantastic tradition and England’s players need to respect it without giving it too much consideration. The last time I did that was with the Lions in the first Test in 2005 when I’d been sent an email from someone claiming to be a Maori elder. He explained how to diffuse the Haka. We formed a big semi-circle from touchline to touchline which, according to the Maori elder, would reduce the impact of the Haka. Unfortunately, Brian O’Driscoll ended up being carried off on a stretcher in the first minute and we got smashed so that probably wouldn’t go into my coaching manual about how to combat it! My best advice to England’s players is to stand there in full tracksuit, front it up and then take your time getting ready for kick- off. That’s when the All Blacks are most pumped. So take a bit of heat out of the situation and regain some control. As long as the referee is told in advance, there should be no problem.