Steve Hansen has a dig at "confident" England

Hansen is not known for his subtlety and his pointed reference to Stuart Lancaster’s aim to take his team above South Africa to the No2 position by claiming a second successive victory over the world champions will have been noted by the English camp.

Defeating France 26-19 in Paris saw New Zealand maintain their perfect record for 2013 with a 12th successive win and kept them on course to become the first team in the professional era to finish unbeaten in a calendar year. All they have to do is gain revenge over England for last year’s shock 38-21 loss here and Hansen said: “There is a real edge going back to Twickenham. They are going well, we are going okay. Both teams are looking forward to playing there.

“I hear that already they are talking about scoring four tries and going to No2 in the world, so obviously they have got a lot of confidence.”

The look on Hansen’s face said everything about exactly what the All Blacks want to achieve on Saturday and  they see South Africa as their nearest rivals, not Lancaster’s men who struggled in the second half before overcoming Argentina 31-12 at Twickenham.

Hansen is not ready to confirm fly-half Dan Carter will start his 100th Test in the England match and added: “It’s not about sentimentality. It’s about picking the right team to play England, and whether or not he’s played 100 or 500 or zero. If he’s the right person, we’ll pick him.”

Lancaster is happy to recite his own team’s playing record with nine wins out of their last 10 matches but there is still plenty of work for the squad to do this week.

“We need to work on our accuracy to get that 80-minute performance because to beat the best team in the world, which is what we’re facing, we need to be at that level,”  said the head coach. “We need to go up a couple of notches.”

Tom Wood epitomises the hard-nosed attitude and realism that will be needed this week as they prepare for the ultimate rugby test. The Northampton flanker, who has been impressive against the Wallabies and Pumas, said: “When we get it right we can beat these teams and we want to be in the position where we don’t have to declare a national holiday when we beat them. We want  visiting teams who come to Twickenham to be the underdogs and we are getting there.”

Hooker Dylan Hartley, born in New Zealand, has ensured he will start against the All Blacks with a man-of-the-match showing against the Pumas and he will have Alex Corbisiero and Dan Cole alongside him the front row.

Marland Yarde’s pace and power is needed on the left wing and his fitness after a hip problem will be the major concern this week. London Wasps prop Matt Mullen has been added to the squad as Mako Vunipola is struggling to recover from his ligament injury.

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Steve Hansen has a dig at "confident" England