George Ford insists England have the belief required to conquer New Zealand on home soil for the first time since 2012 in a massive Quilter Nations Series clash.
Steve Borthwick’s side arrive for a meeting with the All Blacks on a run of nine consecutive victories, but recognise that this will be a true test of their progress.
Ford was part of the last England side to beat New Zealand in the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final, playing all 80 minutes at fly half in Yokohama to steer the team to a famous victory.
The 32-year-old has been reinstalled at No 10 having started England’s November opener against Australia, and believes the squad are ready to take the next step having suffered three narrow defeats to the All Blacks last year.
The fly half struck the post with a penalty and missed a last-minute drop goal in the final of those meetings at Twickenham last November, and hopes that England can this year overcome the stiff challenge facing them.
“There is a belief, 100%, you can feel that in the week,” Ford stressed. “You’ve got to go at a team like this in every area of the game.
“When we’ve got the ball, we’ve got to go at them. And when they’ve got the ball, we’ve got to go at them. The kicking game, the set-piece, we’ve got to go at them.
“That’s the mentality you need. The moment you sit off, the moment you become a bit passive, is the moment that they could potentially get on top. And it’s infectious. The feeling is infectious on the field when you’re like that.
“You deal with mistakes better, you deal with errors better, because you just forget about that and just throw yourself into the next thing. And that’s the feeling we want to get on Saturday at Allianz. Because when a team play like that, you get the crowd behind you, you inspire each other to keep going, you inspire the bench when they come on. And that’s how you’re going to win Test matches against the best teams, if you have that mentality.
“There’s only been eight wins [against New Zealand] ever. It’s like, come on, let’s have a ninth now. Let’s change that. I think the last time England beat New Zealand at Twickenham was 2012. And people still go on about 2012, Manu [Tuilagi] and all that.
“Why can’t we be the next team, 2025, that they talk about? It’s definitely part of my motivation.”
Ford appeared off the bench in the 24-22 defeat last November, and had two chances to win the game with the boot. After a messy execution of their final play, his drop goal slipped wide of the posts as New Zealand clung on for the win.
It came amid a series of English defeats in which they struggled in the final quarter, a pattern that has been remedied this year. Ford believes England have learned from their errors and would approach a similar situation differently this time around.
Ford explained: “I think in terms of the end of the game, whenever you want three points to win a game, you’ve got to make sure we still have an attacking mindset to go and play and try and get on the front foot and speed of ball, because you’ve got a better chance of either forcing a penalty or kicking a drop goal off the back of that.
“I think if we look back, we probably went back about 15, 20 metres before we kicked the ball. But, yeah, I think, you know, I look back to that game, we did so many good things, so many good things.
“I think the key thing for us is to just keep going at them. Let’s absolutely keep going at them.
“There’s a bit of a difference in our mindset there. And we’ve had that, I think, as well in the last few games. You see the bench come on and the intensity goes through the roof. It’s exactly what we want.”
