England vs New Zealand: Eddie Jones reveals secret to beating New Zealand at Twickenham
EDDIE JONES wants England to put their names up in lights and reduce the All Blacks to support acts when the two sides finally meet at Twickenham today.
New Zealand are the undisputed headliners of world rugby with an astonishing 92 per cent win ratio since the 2015 World Cup, but Jones insists they can be beaten – if England aren’t starstruck in their first meeting with the world champions for four years.
“You can either make the movie or be in the movie, and we want to make the movie,” said the England coach.
“We don’t want to sit there and watch it because that’s what happens when you play New Zealand sometimes.
"You sit there, you eat popcorn, have a can of Pepsi and watch the movie and think, ‘They’re the best team in the world, we can’t compete against them’.
Thirty-three per cent of our players have beaten New Zealand and understand like any team they’ve got weaknesses
"Then they realise ‘we can be in this’ – but it’s too late.
“Thirty-three per cent of our players have beaten New Zealand and understand like any team they’ve got weaknesses and we’ve got an opportunity to get at them.
"The other 67 per cent want to beat them so we’re happy to go out there and get stuck into them.
“We want to make the movie; we want to be film directors.”
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New Zealand’s leading actor Kieran Read, who was part of the side which lifted the World Cup at Twickenham in 2015, says the spotlight will be on the All Blacks.
“I have really enjoyed playing on the big stages and Twickenham is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, stage in rugby. We love to play here at Twickenham,” said the All Blacks captain.
“This has been built up and rightly so. It’s a special day playing England at Twickenham. It’s one of those occasions you remember across your career so it’s going to be a massive one.
“The atmosphere is fantastic with the amount of Englishmen in there singing but it will be pretty much white noise when we get on the field.
“The guys are really excited. They have been reining us in all week to keep the energy up for Saturday. Hopefully we show that.”