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England have endured plenty of agonising near misses against New Zealand in recent years but there is no shortage of belief this time around.
The home captain, Maro Itoje, says he believes his side are “ready” to secure a first victory over the All Blacks since 2019 and suggests they now have the rising confidence and mental clarity to extend their winning run to 10 games.
Itoje knows from personal experience what it takes to beat New Zealand, having tasted success for the British & Irish Lions in 2017 and again for England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final in Yokohama. On three occasions last year he was part of teams narrowly edged out in the final stages by the All Blacks in Dunedin, Auckland and London but says England are now significantly better placed to seal the deal on Saturday.
“I think we’re ready,” said Itoje as England put the finishing touches to their big game preparations at their hotel base in Bagshot. “New Zealand are a good team, no doubt about that. They possess enough talent, accuracy and power to hurt any team but I think we’re ready to take that next step.
“I think we have a clearer understanding of how we want to play and more belief in what we do and how we do it. The quality of the playing squad has improved and with the experiences we’ve all had over the last year or so we’re just more equipped to take advantage of opportunities at hand.”
Itoje’s optimism is also based on England’s growing strength in depth, particularly off the bench, compared with 12 months ago. They were leading in the second half of all three of their Tests against New Zealand last year, only to fail to score a point in the final quarter of all those contests.
In Dunedin they lost 16-15 after Marcus Smith’s goalkicking radar deserted him, while in Auckland they were in front 17-13 before going down 24-17, missing out on a possible late penalty try which might have secured them a draw.
Then there was the frustrating 24-22 home reverse this time last year when George Ford narrowly missed a late penalty and a drop goal opportunity which could have yielded a first triumph over the All Blacks at Twickenham since 2012. Add everything together and there is no escaping England’s desire to go one better now.
Itoje, though, is fully aware there will inevitably be twists and turns along the way. “Playing against the All Blacks, you need to be sharp mentally and you need to execute when you get your opportunities because you don’t get many of them. So when they come we need to make sure we execute. We need to have a physical intensity as well as an accuracy to what we do.
“I think we had the belief we could do it last year and if maybe one or two things went the other way, it could have been a different conversation we’re having now. But throughout this year we’ve had a number of challenging games and a number of challenging experiences, and I think we’re beginning to learn from them.”
England, however, have managed only eight wins over New Zealand in the long history of this fixture. In Japan they famously stood in a V-for-victory formation to face the All Blacks’ pre-game haka but what Itoje remembers most is the pre-match feeling of certainty in the winning dressing room.
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“At that stage of the journey of the team we were ready for that sort of challenge. We felt that if we were aggressive and accurate we would be able to get them. It was one of those weird games where they had periods on top but it felt like there was only one outcome. Hopefully we can do something similar this weekend.”
To that end, England’s focus in camp has been on keeping as calm as possible at pivotal moments. More broadly, it would also underline the progress Steve Borthwick’s side have been making this year, which has so far yielded nine successive wins – several of them secured late on – since their loss to Ireland in Dublin in February.
“For me, it’s all about mental clarity,” stressed Itoje, who is set to win his 96th cap for England. “If you’ve played the whole game there’s a fatigue element in there but the ones who are able to see it through ... there’s a toughness, there’s a mental clarity which gives you the ability to execute.
“A number of Test matches are going down to the last quarter or the last 10 minutes, if not even less than that. In the last 15 minutes it’s the teams that can execute, keep their composure, don’t do erratic things, stick to task but also do all that at an incredibly high intensity that tend to be the ones that follow through and win.”
