There is set to be a thrilling afternoon as England welcome the world champions to Twickenham.
The Cole face
Stuart Lancaster
believes the experience of Dan Cole will be vital to England's chances of inflicting a first defeat of the year on New Zealand on Saturday. Cole has been recalled at tight-head prop ahead of David Wilson in the only change to the XV that started last weekend's win over Argentina. "Dan has been around the team in every game I've been involved in," said Lancaster. "He's started virtually every game and we wanted his experience.
The 100 club
Dan Carter
will win his 100th cap for New Zealand in Saturday's QBE International against England at Twickenham. Carter will lead the back line as the All Blacks look to make amends for last year's shock defeat to England. Carter made his debut against Wales in June 2003, with the then 21-year-old announcing himself on the world stage with an impressive 20-point haul. Since then he has gone on to score 1,435 international points and is
one the greatest No 10s of all time.
Rudderless England
Zinzan Brooke is not giving England a chance on Saturday and says that New Zealand's loss to England last year was just a blip and expects the All Blacks
to be far too strong for Stuart Lancaster's men. "After what happened last year the boys will want to square that off - they will be hugely driven to do that on this tour," said Brooke. "With their form and the way they are playing at the moment I think it will be hard for any team to go with them. In all honestly I think it is going to be all New Zealand, this is their game to lose."
Muscle up!
Stuart Barnes and Sean Fitzpatrick
discuss the importance of England forwards against the All Blacks. "England's foundations are quite good - by that I mean our scrum and line out is going well," explained Barnes. " I also think that the dynamism 5-10 metres either side of the breakdown, collision and set piece is excellent. If England can maintain that then I think they have a real chance. What I don't think England can do is play any wider - I don't think we have the personal, the game plan of the confidence to take on the All Blacks. I think England have to play a condensed powerful direct game; then they have a chance."
Classic encounters
England's incredible display this time last year when they ran out 38-21 winners is one of their greatest victories but New Zealand have enjoyed plenty of highlights of their own over the years. The teams have only met 35 times with New Zealand winning 27, England seven and one draw. From Richard Cockerill going walkabout during the haka in 1997, England holding the line for a rare win in Wellington in 2003 and Carter's Twickenham masterclass seven years ago, this fixture
rarely fails to deliver in terms of drama and excitement.
The captain's view
England skipper Chris Robshaw has challenged his players to repeat last year's victory but knows that, to do so, they must
tread a fine line between intensity and relaxation under pressure. Robshaw said: We've got the number one team in the world coming to, effectively, the home of rugby. They're going to want to play their game and we're going to hopefully nullify that and put ours on the pitch. We can't go into this game waiting to get a shot at them or potentially get first blood. We need to make sure that from minute one we are in the fight."
Benchmark
England stand-off
Owen Farrell is looking forward to going up against Carter and believes facing the All Blacks will allow Stuart Lancaster's men to find out how good they really are. Farrell said of Carter: "There isn't much I don't admire about him. He's not bad at anything. He's world class. The impressive thing is that he's been doing it for a long time - there's been no drop-off. I respect him massively because of what he's done and who he is, but there's no point sitting back and being in awe of it. You've got to go out and perform yourself. You've got to get excited about it."
