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All Blacks' skipper Scott Barrett's take on England 'pressure game'
By PA
New Zealand captain Scott Barrett insists the All Blacks must avoid another arm wrestle if they are to win the second Test against England in style.
The rivals clash at Eden Park where the All Blacks have not been defeated since 1994 and the expectation among fans is to continue that run while scoring tries.
A 16-15 victory in Dunedin gave them a winning start to the series, but their attack spluttered in an attritional second half.
“The thing about Test-match rugby is there are different styles of play,” Barrett told reporters.
“England force you into a pressure sort of game – that’s rush ‘D’, high balls and breakdown pressure.
“That’s the battle and sometimes they take your game away from you – the expansive All Black game.
“Our challenge is to win the breakdown, get good ball, and hopefully we can play some of that All Black rugby.”
England were dealt a blow on the eve of the second Test after George Furbank was ruled out of the Auckland showdown by a back injury.
Furbank was singled out as the tourists’ dangerman by opposite number Stephen Perofeta earlier in the week but his late injury setback means his cutting edge in attack will be missing at Eden Park.
Freddie Steward replaces Furbank at full-back in his first appearance for England since February 10 when he started against Wales in the Six Nations.
Steward has even been overlooked for the bench since losing his place to Furbank, who provides the team with more of a counter-attacking threat while also an accomplished defender.
The Leicester Tiger was a foundation stone of England’s backline as he quickly compiled 33 caps, but his expertise under the high ball and command of the backfield have made way for a new emphasis on attack.
Steward has trained throughout the summer tour but Saturday’s second and final Test against the All Blacks will be his first appearance since May 18 when Leicester defeated Exeter – almost two months ago.
“It is massively disappointing for George, he has been brilliant in the way he has been playing this season,” England scrum coach Tom Harrison told reporters.
“But on a brighter note we have got depth in that position and a world class player in Freddie Steward coming in.
“Wherever we go, we play to our strengths. I don’t think it changes our approach too much.
“Freddie has been working hard on the things that George has been good at and George has been working hard on the things that Freddie is good at, so when moments like this happen players are always ready to step into the plan.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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