{"id":2717,"date":"2022-11-19T06:18:11","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T06:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/england-v-new-zealand-all-blacks-spectacle-proves-as-alluring-as-ever\/"},"modified":"2022-11-19T06:18:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T06:18:13","slug":"england-v-new-zealand-all-blacks-spectacle-proves-as-alluring-as-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/england-v-new-zealand-all-blacks-spectacle-proves-as-alluring-as-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"England v New Zealand: All Blacks spectacle proves as alluring as ever"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span><\/span>
England’s Billy Vunipola and New Zealand’s Ardie Savea will face off at number eight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/thead>\n\n\n\n
Venue: <\/strong>Twickenham Stadium <\/span>Date:<\/strong> Saturday, 19 November<\/span> Kick-off: <\/strong>17:30 GMT<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coverage:<\/strong> Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app, updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Neither are the best team in the world. Nor are they the most exciting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The world title resides elsewhere. So does the Six Nations Championship. Other sides have more mojo and momentum.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But, for all the doubts and dents inflicted by some turbulent form this season, England v New Zealand is inescapably autumn’s biggest ticket.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of it comes from a storied rivalry. New Zealand – the most successful Test team in history – met England – the richest – for the first time back in 1905.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of it comes from a lack of recent history. <\/span><\/p>\n

The teams have played each other only twice since the start of 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first, in autumn 2018, <\/span>was a soggy, but intriguing affair<\/span><\/a>. Any match in which Sam Underhill’s swerve-step twists Beauden Barrett’s blood deserves your attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand took it by a single point. <\/span><\/p>\n

England prevailed in Yokohama a year later though, when a supreme semi-final performance pummelled the life out of All Black hopes of a third successive World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n

“That scarcity brings extra excitement,” said All Black legend Dan Carter as he contemplated his side dishing out some cold revenge of their own this Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you have a defeat like that, the one thing you want to do is play against that opposition again, but we haven’t been able to do that for so long.”<\/span><\/p>\n

However, New Zealand’s payback hit-list has run unusually long this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/span><\/span>
It is the two teams’ first meeting since England’s victory in the semi-finals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

France, Ireland, South Africa and Argentina have all beaten them over the past 12 months. For the Kiwi rugby public that constitutes a crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Ian Foster, who was promoted into the top job after Steve Hansen’s departure in 2019, survived a mid-season review, but has had new staff brought in around him, including former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt as attack coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was it the right call?<\/span><\/p>\n

Results have certainly improved. After two wins in eight matches, they are on a streak of six successive victories.<\/span><\/p>\n

The performances behind that run though haven’t allayed all concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for Wallaby fly-half Bernard Foley’s lax timekeeping and referee Mathieu Raynal’s strict adherence to the law, <\/span>Australia would have won in September. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Japan came within seven points of them in Tokyo in October. <\/span><\/p>\n

It may be decades before Scotland have a better chance to beat the All Blacks <\/span>than the one they passed up last weekend<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand have recalled senior players since that Murrayfield scare. Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’unga return as the half-back partnership. Second row Brodie Retallick is back from suspension.<\/span><\/p>\n

But England coach Eddie Jones smells blood in the water. Immediately after his own side’s win over Japan last Saturday, he pronounced that the All Blacks <\/span>were “there for the taking”<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

England could do with him being right. <\/span><\/p>\n

If not, a year bookended by a dour Six Nations campaign and three defeats from four in the autumn will loom into view. The world champion Springboks are the final visitors to Twickenham next weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

In pursuit of victory, Jones has gone all in on the breakdown. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Simmonds is picked in an unaccustomed flanker role, in the hope of recreating the magic of Tom Curry and Underhill’s ‘kamikaze kids’ combo from Japan 2019. <\/span><\/p>\n

It comes at the cost of a third line-out option with Courtney Lawes out injured, Maro Itoje switching into second row and Alex Coles, another back row\/second row hybrid, left out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether England keep to a winning formula with another display of defiance in the face of the haka is less clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vice-captain Ellis Genge said this week there was nothing planned like the ‘flying V’ formation that preceded the 2019 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then forwards coach Richard Cockerill, who famously went nose-to-nose with opposite number Norm Hewitt before a meeting with New Zealand in 1997, sounded a slightly different note.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/span><\/span>
Cockerill’s face-off with Hewitt was followed by a 25-8 defeat by New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1997<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Is it a challenge or not a challenge? We’ll respect it how we want to respect it,” said Cockerill.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think the haka has become a little bit sterile and too much is made of it when people do different things towards it. That’s overplayed.<\/span><\/p>\n

“New Zealand are allowed to do what they want to do and the opposition should be allowed to do what they want to do.”<\/span><\/p>\n

With top tickets touching \u00a3200, that spectacle, and the fixture’s scarcity value, add up to a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it is invariably worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Banner<\/span><\/span>\"Footer<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


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England’s Billy Vunipola and New Zealand’s Ardie Savea will face off at number eight Venue: Twickenham Stadium Date: Saturday, 19 November Kick-off: 17:30 GMT Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app, updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds Neither are the best team in the world. Nor are they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2719,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions\/2719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}