England v New Zealand: Twickenham 2012 was magical, to do it again would ...

But 12 months ago they were whitewashed by England at the end of a 20-match

unbeaten run.

New Zealand will say with justification that they have been rugby union’s

pre-eminent force for a hundred years. A year ago on this turf, though, a

noble history could not save them from an ambush.

One question dominates English sport on Saturday.

It was the only question in the England camp all week. Can they do it again?

The players can see it coming, hear it in their sleep.

Out there, beyond the five-star comforts of a Surrey hotel, the haka

has started early, with New Zealand ramping up their motivational slogans,

laying out Dan Carter’s 100th cap, and plotting revenge for the indignity of

last year, which was blamed on a virus, fixture overload and England’s

one-off banshee zeal.

Dan Cole, a survivor from that joyous day, is adopting the same

non-deferential mindset as he did then.

He has no interest in the All Black aura. “Take the names and the people out

of it,” he said. “It’s country v country.”

Part of Test rugby’s beauty is the potential for teams to shred the form book

through sheer force of will, desperation, desire, physical self-sacrifice:

call it what you will.

But to do so once brings no long slumber on laurels. The victim comes back,

wanting recompense.

And the New Zealand side who seek redress now have won all 12 Tests in 2013,

scoring 400 points, at an average of 33.3 per game.

The current bunch bring 842 caps to the argument.

Last year brought New Zealand’s first autumn international defeat since the

31-18 loss to England in 2002.

Only once have England posted consecutive victories over the sport’s most

rugby-addicted and skills-rich country, in 2002-03.

The normal course of history will attempt to reassert itself at Twickenham and

Stuart Lancaster’s men will have to find some way to stop it, at enormous

cost to their bodies.

Hansen said: “They’re striving to turn Twickenham into a fortress and make it

the place everyone fears to play at and try to go back to the Clive Woodward

days when they won a World Cup.”

Shoving emotion and territorial urges aside, only seven of last year’s heroes

turn out again: Cole, Mike Brown, Chris Ashton, Owen Farrell, Chris Robshaw,

Tom Wood and Joe Launchbury.

Missing, most ominously, is the centre-pairing of Manu Tuilagi and Brad

Barritt, who led the charge through New Zealand lines after Owen Farrell had

kicked England to a 15-0 lead, and the All Blacks had responded with tries

from Julian Savea and Kieran Read.

The seventh England win over New Zealand in history was accomplished by a team

with no 50-cap members.

Hansen said with only a trace of condescension: “I don’t think it was just a

northern hemisphere style of bash and crash. They actually played good rugby

union.”

Cole recalled England’s Big Idea 12 months ago: “It was to take the game to

the All Blacks. That was the mentality all week.

“We looked at the World Cup final, when they weren’t as dominant as they had

been.

“France dominated by taking it to the All Blacks and that’s what we did in the

first half. Defensively we tried to shut them down.

“The mentality was not to sit back and let them dictate. We wanted to try and

take that away from them and put them on the back foot.

“If you sit back and watch them play they’ll play some fantastic stuff and

score lots of points.

“Throughout the history of the English game we’re not a side that runs up 60

or 70 points, so the aim was to stop the All Blacks and play the game on our

terms.

“If you play it on theirs, they will dominate.”

Brown’s recollection of the underdog’s big day is similar, but also realistic:

“We tried to play in the right areas, make sure we got over the gain line.

“It’s simple but effective. In that game we kept going from minute one to 80,

and that’s what you need to do against a team like New Zealand.

“They keep coming and coming. Beating them last year gave us great belief, but

it’s a long time ago now, and this a completely different situation.”

Troubling many England fans will be the knowledge that trampling on the silver

fern offered no defence against Welsh brilliance in this year’s Six

Nations decider in Cardiff.

Nor was the same exuberance apparent in this autumn’s victories over Australia

and Argentina,

creditable though they were.

Lancaster, though, is steadfast: “We’ve moved on since this time last year.

We’ve had our one disappointment in that time [against Wales] but we’ve won

the rest of the games, so we’ve made progress as well.”

In that period Lancaster has tried to foster a deep love for the England shirt

among his players: the sense, amply displayed by New Zealand, that national

service is an honour and a privilege that connects each recruit to a sacred

tradition.

Asked on Thursday to define his notion of Englishness, Lancaster said: “Were

still looking into that.”

His problem, as before, is that England rugby is defined by physical

subjugation rather than self-expression.

So last year’s win is bound to be categorised as a one-off unless this year’s

team can reach those heights again.

“It’s the de-structured situations that New Zealand exploit the most,”

Lancaster said.

In other words, freedom of thought confronts a tendency towards structure and

rigidity, which the England coach insists he is trying to discourage.

More telling than concepts, however, are likely to be the try-scoring potency

of New Zealand’s back three, the absence of Barritt and Tuilagi in midfield

and the injury to Alex Corbisiero: front-row destroyer.

Cole, a realist, knows that doubt is already planted in New Zealand heads from

12 months ago.

England are not trying to find out what it is to beat the world No1. They

already have that knowledge.

He said of New Zealand: “They know what we’re going to throw at them. They’ll

adjust their game accordingly.

“They can adapt their game. We’re prepared for what they can do. They know

we’ll battle for everything and play hard throughout the whole game.”

English stubbornness was never in doubt. Last year they were more than merely

resolute. They were dazzling.

They stole New Zealand’s clothes. But now the All Blacks want them back — and

they will not be asking nicely.

Article source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/southafrica/10454528/South-Africa-scrum-half-and-rugby-genius-Joost-Van-der-Westhuizen-comes-to-terms-with-death-sentence.html

England v New Zealand: Twickenham 2012 was magical, to do it again would ...