I have long held the opinion that England would be the team to beat come World Cup 2015. Last Saturday night did little to change my mind.
In fact, that performance has lead me to strengthen my view on the matter. If anyone wishes to lay claim to the title, then I believe England will have to be beaten to achieve it.
I have long been wary of this England rugby team after New Zealand turned up on their doorstep and were shown the door in no uncertain terms in 2012. Yes, there was talk of a virus and coming to the end of a long season but frankly, we were towelled up.
Then in 2013 we managed to return serve and restore our pride in the process with some considerable effort. Those two recent match-ups in England lead me to anticipate this three-Test series at home.
The first Test last Saturday night at Eden Park did not disappoint.
It is fairly obvious that England can match us with a starting fifteen, but my question of English rugby was did they have the depth? Saturday night answered my question with an emphatic yes.
For a team apparently missing over ten first-choice starters they almost caused one of the great upsets.
England ‘B’ turned up to Eden Park and gave us one almighty fright with pure tenacity and physicality. With a touch more fortune from Mr Owens, they may well have walked away with a memorable win.
As it stands, the English will be full of self-belief heading to Dunedin, knowing they have some very useful artillery to introduce to the fight. They will be confident of giving this series an almighty shake.
How many other teams can turn up at Eden Park and run us that close missing the number of personal that England are?
Not many, if any, I would suggest.
THis team has the most room for growth when compared to their international rivals. With a high quality coach in Stuart Lancaster and the inspirational leadership of Chris Robshaw, I have no hesitation in suggesting that England are my early favourites for World Cup 2015.
As for the here and now, it was very pleasing to see the All Blacks pull through at the end once again to secure victory. Some would suggest fortuitously, myself included, but we had our opportunities and took them.
It was not a fantastic match from our perspective, our handling was poor and our physicality at the breakdown was left wanting at times against a very committed English team.
Our lineout functioned reasonably and our scrum, while under pressure was good enough for the majority to gain parity, although it would be nice to see us apply more pressure on their feed.
As much as I have praised the English and labelled them as World Cup favourites, I still believe we will win this series and I still expect a clean sweep.
We have far too much experience, a point emphasised on Saturday, and with playing at home I am picking next week will see a vastly improved performance.
A lot of comment has passed that the All Blacks are always a bit rusty first up. We will not put two bad performances in back to back and I am certainly hopeful this will prove to be the case, it certainly has in the past.
I simply can’t wait to find out what transpires next Saturday in Dunedin.
