England v New Zealand: All Blacks spectacle proves as alluring as ever

Neither are the best team in the world. Nor are they the most exciting.

But, for all the doubts and dents inflicted by some turbulent form this season, England v New Zealand is inescapably the autumn’s biggest ticket.

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.

Most of it comes from a lack of recent history.

The teams have played each other only twice since the start of 2015.

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

New Zealand took it by a single point.

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.

“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.

“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.”

However, New Zealand’s payback hit-list has run unusually long this year.

France, Ireland, South Africa and Argentina have all beaten them over the past 12 months. For the Kiwi rugby public that constitutes a crisis.

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.

Was it the right call?

Results have certainly improved. After two wins in eight matches, they are on a streak of six successive victories.

The performances behind that run though haven’t allayed all concerns.

But for Wallaby fly-half Bernard Foley’s lax timekeeping and referee Mathieu Raynal’s strict adherence to the law, Australia would have won in September.

Japan came within seven points of them in Tokyo in October.

It may be decades before Scotland have a better chance to beat the All Blacks than the one they passed up last weekend.

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.

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 were “there for the taking”.

England could do with him being right.

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.

In pursuit of victory, Jones has gone all in on the breakdown.

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.

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.

Whether England keep to a winning formula with another display of defiance in the face of the haka is less clear.

Vice-captain Ellis Genge said this week there was nothing planned like the ‘flying V’ formation that preceded the 2019 victory.

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.

“Is it a challenge or not a challenge? We’ll respect it how we want to respect it,” said Cockerill.

“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.

“New Zealand are allowed to do what they want to do and the opposition should be allowed to do what they want to do.”

With top tickets touching £200, that spectacle, and the fixture’s scarcity value, add up to a lot.

But it is invariably worth it.