England's two match tour of New Zealand kicks off in Dunedin on Saturday, the All Blacks begin a new era under Scott Robertson whilst some of England's more recent results have been encouraging.
New Zealand v England, Saturday 6th July, KO 09:05 (South African time)
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (RA), Jordan Way (RA)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)
Weather Forecast – Dunedin (N/A indoor stadium)
New Zealand:
Scott Robertson takes charge of the All Blacks for the first time and Scott Barrett will skipper the side. New Zealand have not been in action since losing the final of RWC 2023 to South Africa (12-11) in Paris in October.
New Zealand also lost their first match of that tournament to France but recovered to win the remainder of the pool matches by wide margins and then beat Ireland (28-24) in the quarters and Argentina (44-6) in the semis.
The second test takes place in Auckland next week.
England:
Steve Borthwick remains in charge of England who tuned up for this tour with a 52-17 victory over Japan in Tokyo last week and they scored 4 tries in each half via 8 different players.
In the Six Nations earlier this year England finished third with their stand out result being a 23-22 victory over Ireland at Twickenham in Round 4 which ultimately denied Ireland another Grand Slam. They started that tournament with a 27-24 win in Italy and then beat Wales 16-14 at Twickenham. Next up they went down 30-21 in Scotland and after turning the Irish over England finished up by going down 33-31 in France.
Team News
New Zealand: 15 Stephen Perofeta, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Tele’a, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Dalton Papali’i, 6 Samipeni Finau, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Scott Barrett (captain), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan De Groot.
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Luke Jacobson, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Beauden Barrett
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (captain), 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Tom Curry, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Ollie Sleightholme.
Recent Head to Head
The most recent meeting came in November 2022 at Twickenham and it finished in a draw (25-25).
In RWC 2019 in Japan England beat the All Blacks 19-7 in the semi finals
England have only ever beaten the All Blacks twice on New Zealand soil. They last toured New Zealand in 2014 and the All Blacks won all 3 matches, in Auckland (20-15), in Dunedin (28-27) and in Hamilton (36-13).
The Betting
New Zealand -11.5 points at 9/10
England +11.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I am really looking forward to this game to get a measure of where New Zealand are at the moment.
They have said goodbye to a number of top players who will be hard to replace but they have alot of talent coming through and a top coach.
I think this England team are on the right track under Borthwick and I think they are going to give a good account of themselves here.
There has been some money for the visitor with the cap coming in to +11.5 from +12.5 and I will be rubber stamping that.
Southpaw in our forum has labelled the overs and I would not put anyone off that as this should be a very entertaining game.
Bet: 4 units England +11.5 at 19/20 at at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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