England will not be fixating on New Zealand’s amazing record at Eden Park as they prepare to face the All Blacks in Saturday’s second Test in Auckland, says lock Alex Coles.
The All Blacks have not lost at their spiritual home for 30 years, a remarkable run of 49 matches unbeaten.
England need a win to square the two-match series after narrowly losing the opener 16-15 in Dunedin.
“We’re not shying away from the fact they have this record, but it’s not playing too much of a part in our preparation,” Coles told BBC Sport.
“As a team we’re not going to focus on that too much. We just have to go out there and do our gameplan a little bit better.”
The 24-year-old came on as a second-half replacement in Otago and says he revelled in going “right into the heat of the battle”.
“That was my sixth cap but it felt like – quote unquote – ‘a proper Test match’, such fine margins and two teams going hammer and tongs at it,” he said.
“It was just personally awesome for me to play against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
“I tried to take a moment when we got there coming off the bus [to soak it all in], but I didn’t want to be thinking about that too much.
“When you get on the pitch it’s just another rugby game.”
