England have welcomed back the cavalry for the crunch clash against the All Blacks on Saturday with George Furbank, Ollie Chessum and Seb Atkinson all returning to the squad from injury.
Steve Borthwick’s side are braced for a backlash after New Zealand’s first defeat against Wales in 73 years but the head coach is boosted with three key men on course to make their comebacks this weekend.
Furbank shone in his first England appearance in two years against Australia but sat out the 78-15 win against Japan last Saturday with a groin problem. The vice-captain Chessum was also absent against Eddie Jones’s side with a shoulder injury, as was the inside-centre Atkinson with a groin complaint. All three were named on Sunday in the 36-man squad, however.
England are bidding for their fifth successive win in the Nations Championship and clinched their first home victory against the All Blacks since 2012 this time last year . Jones predicted a “violent” response from New Zealand after they were toppled in Cardiff but victory for England would put them top of the northern hemisphere table and pile the pressure on Ireland and France before their subsequent matches.
Since the commanding 33-19 win against New Zealand last year, Scott Robertson has been sacked as head coach with Dave Rennie appointed and overseeing an upturn in form, before their defeat last weekend. The tighthead prop Joe Heyes said, however, that England now have a taste for beating the All Blacks.
“We’d expect the best of New Zealand every time we face them,” he said. “They know it’s a big game and it’s obviously a huge rivalry as well. So regardless of what the result was for this week or last week or whatever, we’re going to get the best of New Zealand. I just had two mint choc chip ice-creams in [the changing room]. And the first was as good as the second and the second will be as good as the third. So I’m actually still incredibly excited. It’s a whole different game and every rugby game is different.”
The captain, Maro Itoje, has beaten New Zealand on three occasions – twice with England and once with the British & Irish Lions – and has called on his side to carry the fight to the All Blacks. He said: “You’ve just got to attack the game. New Zealand are one of these teams … At Premiership level and with some international teams it’s like: ‘OK, they’re not very good at this, they’re not very good at that.’ New Zealand’s not like that. They’re actually very good at pretty much all aspects of the game.
“It’s not often you look at their team and think they have an obvious weakness, and therefore, you just have to attack everything. Every scrum, every lineout, every breakdown, every collision, everything. You just have to go after everything. That’s just the mindset. We just need to attack the game from minute one. If you start poorly, it’s very difficult for you. If you’re ill-disciplined, it’s very difficult for you. But if you’re aggressive, if you’re disciplined, if you have that mindset to attack everything, then things can open up.”
Borthwick – who will consider whether to keep faith in Will Joseph after his five-try heroics in the continued absence of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso – has identified a number of differences in the All Blacks since Rennie replaced Robertson. “They’re ranking exceptionally highly at winning the ball back in the air, it’s a huge strength of theirs. They’re playing a lot of phases in the opposition half but they’re really willing to go to a contestable kick very early.
“I expect them to bring that here which is not something that you’d have said about a New Zealand team typically. That’s a fundamental aspect of their game that has changed. They want to play a phase attack game, we want to be able to have a contest at the breakdown. We want to officiate where there is the chance for the defence also to go and contest at that ruck.
“They’re very good at exploiting space, we need to make sure we deal with contestable kicks and we can’t let New Zealand have the ball for that length of time because they’re so good at it. I haven’t seen the game [against Wales], but you look at the way they’re playing, the way they played in those two Bledisloe Cup games, they’re a top, top-class team.”
