COACH: ALL BLACKS WARY OF WOUNDED ENGLISH
EW Zealand coach Steve Hansen is adamant the world champions remain wary of an injury-hit England ahead of their Test at Twickenham today (4.30pm SA time kick-off).
After seeing off the United States 74-6 in Chicago last week, the All Blacks begin the crunch part of their end-of-season tour against next year’s World Cup hosts.
While Hansen has no qualms about leaving out all-time record points-scorer Dan Carter – still, in his view, not fully fit after a succession of injuries and starting with Aaron Cruden at flyhalf – that is the kind of selection luxury England counterpart Stuart Lancaster can only dream of this weekend.
Injuries have deprived him of first-choice centres Manu Tuilagi – a try-scorer and maker in England’s stunning 38-21 win over the All Blacks at Twickenham in 2012 – and Luther Burrell, as well as locks Geoff Parling and Joe Launchbury and British & Irish Lions prop Alex Corbisiero.
England’s back division includes a debutant wing in Fiji-born British Army soldier Semesa Rokoduguni, whose likely direct opponent, Julian Savea, has an outstanding record of 29 tries in 30 Tests, including eight in four matches against England.
“I don’t think it’s that inexperienced,” said Hansen of an England back division that includes a previously untried centre pairing of Kyle Eastmond and South Africa-born Brad Barritt.
“Most of them have played Test rugby apart from the Fijian lad (Rokoduguni), who has just come into the side.”
Since their 2012 success, England have lost four successive Tests against the All Blacks, including a 3-0 series defeat in New Zealand in June.
They have received praise for their positive approach, but, less than a year out from the World Cup, victory today would be timely for England. The match is England’s first Test since June, whereas Rugby
Championship kings New
NZealand are well into an international programme.
“The big advantage we’ve got is that we’ve played a lot of Tests since June and the disadvantage is England have played none,” said Hansen. “I guess there is an advantage for them in that, too. They’ve seen what we are doing – we can only second-guess.
“Do they stick with the adventurous game they want to play or do they think to themselves, ‘we’ll take them on up front’, or do they do a bit of both, which is probably more likely?”
Although a New Zealand visit to Twickenham is almost an annual event, Hansen said playing at the venue of next year’s World Cup final was always a memorable experience.
“Twickenham is one of the great rugby grounds, isn’t it?” he said. “It holds 83 000 – that’s what you want when you play rugby, you want to play in the big stadiums and be challenged. Twickenham is always one of those places that does that.”
The head-to-head contest between England’s Danny Care and New Zealand’s Aaron Smith, two of the sharper scrumhalves in world rugby, will be intriguing, as will the display of leadership skills of the two flanker/captains, Chris Robshaw and All Blacks great Richie McCaw.
“New Zealand are strong across the board, very experienced and with world-class players in a lot of positions,” said Lancaster.
“But it’s not dissimilar to the side we played in the summer, the side we played this time last year or two years ago and, on each occasion, we either won or pushed them close.”
Lancaster’s side might do well to demonstrate similar obstinacy to a capacity crowd who are likely to react to New Zealand’s “haka” with a rousing chorus of the Twickenham anthem Swing Low, Sweet Chariot –a response that’s almost becoming as traditional at “headquarters” as the Maori war dance is to any All Blacks international.
Inevitably, the match will be viewed through the prism of the upcoming World Cup, and Hansen said: “It’s not far away, is it? You can just about reach out and touch it. But we’ve got a job to do (today) that’s got nothing to do with the World Cup.” – SapaAFP