Category: England Rugby

Maro Itoje and company have talked the talk and are hungry to follow through with a first win at home over New Zealand since 2012

For better or worse it has been lashing down in south-west London. Good news for restocking the reservoirs but rather less so for dry-ball rugby. Had England played New Zealand 24 hours earlier it would have resembled a game of outdoor water polo and, although the matchday forecast is less biblical, a decidedly damp, grey afternoon awaits.

Is it some kind of celestial clue that England’s on-field drought against the All Blacks might be about to break? It is now 13 years since the last men’s victory over New Zealand at what was once called Twickenham, so long ago that Maro Itoje was still at school. Troublemaker by Olly Murs (featuring Flo Rida) topped the UK charts and the nation was basking in a warm, fuzzy post-London Olympics glow that was supposed to last indefinitely.

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• England’s 2012 Twickenham win frequently referenced

• Jamie George: ‘Why can’t we be next team talked about?’

Maro Itoje’s England have been urged to cement their place in sporting legend by becoming only the nation’s ninth ever side to defeat the All Blacks.

England head into Saturday’s crunch clash as marginal favourites, with meaning a first Twickenham win over New Zealand for 13 years, and George Ford has revealed that the former captain Jamie George has issued a call to arms, imploring his teammates to carve themselves a slice of history.

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• Borthwick’s side chasing 10th straight victory

• ‘The quality of the playing squad has improved’

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.

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• Barrett missed win against Scotland due to cut

• Scott Robertson preparing for aerial contest

Scott Barrett has come back to ­captain the All Blacks against England at Twickenham this weekend

Barrett had 12 stitches threaded in his leg after he suffered a cut beneath his knee playing against ­Ireland a fortnight ago, and missed his team’s 25-17 victory against ­Scotland at ­Murrayfield last week, but Scott ­Robertson, the New ­Zealand head coach, confirmed that he had played a full part in training and will be ready for the England game.

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• Tennis star visits training camp to share experiences

• Steve Borthwick’s side take on New Zealand on Saturday

England’s preparations for their clash with the All Blacks on Saturday have been boosted by some words of wisdom from the former US Open tennis champion Emma Raducanu, who visited their Bagshot training base on Tuesday.

Raducanu took to the training field with Steve Borthwick’s squad, taking part in lineout practice and kicking drills with Marcus Smith before sharing insights with the captain, Maro Itoje. Borthwick also invited the Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler, to address the squad this week.

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• ‘We need a clear gameplan to put them under pressure’

• All Blacks have not lost at Twickenham for 13 years

Jamie George has warned that England must not be seduced by the All Blacks’ mystique if they are to clinch a first Twickenham victory over New Zealand in 13 years on Saturday.

Steve Borthwick has been boosted before the toughest assignment of England’s autumn campaign with the return to fitness of Elliot Daly, who could make his first appearance since fracturing an arm on British & Irish Lions duty, while Freddie Steward and Tom Roebuck were also named in Sunday night’s 37-man squad.

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England survived a tricky first half to deliver a comfortable win at Allianz Twickenham

6 mins. Fiji exit with little fuss, but Muntz’s kick to touch simply invites another attack from and English lineout. A nice pattern is run in midfield that nearly puts Freeman into space, and a few phases later Cowan-Dickie powers over from short.

Smith converts.

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Harlequins man will have a new role against Fiji in a side likely to deploy a similar gameplan to that which felled Australia

Opportunity knocks for Chandler Cunningham-South against Fiji on Saturday. He has 18 caps to his name but this will be the first time he has worn the No 8 jersey for his country and he has the chance to demonstrate to Steve Borthwick that he can offer something different in a back row brimming with talent.

Borthwick’s decision to omit Tom Willis from his squad on the grounds he is heading to France has meant there is an opening because, for all the quality options England have in the back row, there is a concentration of openside flankers and far fewer players who offer genuine size and power. Cunningham-South offers both in abundance.

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With Marcus Smith at full-back and a highly mobile back five in the pack, Steve Borthwick could play with the handbrake fully off

Much has happened in the 27 months since Fiji were last at Twickenham and beat England. You would certainly have had decent odds back then on the home side’s reserve prop Joe Marler becoming a national TV treasure, a fever dream roughly on a par with Claudia Winkleman shaving off her hair and packing down at loosehead. Who knew?

But here we are in an increasingly parallel universe. Big Joe now has Alan Carr and Sir Stephen Fry on speed dial while England, since the 30-22 defeat in August 2023, have also undergone their own extreme makeover. Having been a team who, by the admission of their own coach early in his tenure, “weren’t good at anything” they are now hoping to extend an eight-match winning run after defeating Australia comfortably last week.

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• Genge to captain side as Borthwick makes seven changes

• Itoje on the bench after missing training due to injury

Steve Borthwick has ­acknowledged the challenges presented by ­managing Marcus Smith’s ­diminished role for England but has urged the recalled playmaker to kickstart his side’s attack against Fiji on Saturday.

Borthwick revealed that he met with Smith before England’s autumn campaign to offer support to the ­Harlequins No 10, who was ­first-choice fly-half 12 months ago before being moved to full-back and then to the role of super sub.

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Viewers have been won over by the quick-witted and quirky former England international. But do they all know about the groin-grabbing and that ‘horse’ of his?

It’s difficult to know where to begin with a not-so-quick guide to Celebrity Traitors’ breakout star, Joe Marler. The BBC series has introduced a wider public to the tattooed, 18-stone-plus former England rugby union player – fans won over by his quick-witted humour, allied to a direct, confrontational form of questioning and an uncanny knack for detective work.

Not all viewers, though, will be au fait with his backstory; the 35-year-old dungaree-wearing ex-prop forward admitted he was mistaken for a sound technician by his fellow celebrities when first on set, and then asked whether he played rugby league when he revealed his previous 15-year career. For those who know rugby union, however, Marler’s style on the show has come as little surprise, save it being slightly toned down for a wider public audience.

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Rugby union is going from strength to strength in the Pacific Island country and the team are eager to settle the score of a World Cup quarter-final defeat

True, they are the lowest-ranked team England will play in November, but it would be highly dangerous to underestimate Fiji. Coming between an opening victory against Australia and a box-office encounter with the All Blacks, it might be easy to regard Saturday’s Twickenham encounter as a relatively straightforward assignment. Easy, but foolish.

You don’t have to go back far – two years or so, to an autumn afternoon in Marseille and England’s 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final – to remember how potent Fiji can be.

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• Smith, Arundell and Lawrence in frame to start

• Borthwick faces dilemmas to backline selection

Injuries to Tom Roebuck and Freddie Steward look likely to trigger an eye-catching reshuffle in England’s backline for the Test against Fiji on Saturday. Marcus Smith, Henry Arundell and Ollie Lawrence are all in contention to be involved, with Manny Feyi-Waboso potentially the solitary starting back-three survivor from the win against Australia on last Saturday.

The head coach, Steve Borthwick, had been hoping to announce his starting XV early this week only for that plan to be mothballed when Roebuck limped out of training prematurely on Tuesday with an ankle problem. Steward has not trained so far this week after sustaining a finger injury late in the win against the Wallabies, opening the way for Smith to replace him at full-back.

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Every team aspires to their own ‘Bomb Squad’ and the modern-day arms race is focused on unleashing heavyweight power from the bench

There was a time in rugby union when the phrase “Bomb Squad” felt novel. South Africa were ahead of the game in maximising the impact of replacement forwards off the bench and the sight of all that fresh beef rumbling on to the field early in the second half was certainly arresting. As the Springboks have proved repeatedly, it works a treat if you possess the requisite strength in depth.

As with all good ideas, however, other people love to copy them. And so we have a modern-day arms race. Everyone now has, or aspires to, their own Bomb Squad. Around the 45th-50th minute in virtually any game there will be an army of stunt doubles preparing to replace the players who started the game. And if a coach can field fewer than three specialist backline reserves in order to bolster further his forward resources, happy days.

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• Hand injury leaves full-back’s availability in doubt

• Smith in frame with Furbank and Daly ruled out

A hand injury to the full-back Freddie Steward could present Marcus Smith with a fresh chance to start for England when they face Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday.

Steve Borthwick’s team will meet the Pacific Islanders in the second of four November internationals after a comfortable opening victory against Australia, but the No 15 jersey may become a significant problem for the England head coach.

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