Sunday, December 22, 2024

England’s autumn internationals: How are they shaping up and who are they playing?

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England will face New Zealand for the third match in a row as they kick off a challenging Autumn Nations Series at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

They will be determined to see the job through at their home ground after failing to hold on to leads in their two summer Test defeats in New Zealand.

England, who are fifth in the world rankings behind Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and France, also suffered a narrow defeat in France in their final game of the Six Nations.

Head coach Steve Borthwick, whose team have won four of their eight games this year, wants his players to show they have learned from these tight matches.

“There was a period not so long ago where we weren’t competing against the top four sides in the world,” Borthwick said. “Now we’re competing against them, but I want to make sure we get the job finished at the end.

“Make no mistake, I praise the players for their performances and for all their efforts because they’ve done a lot of good things, but there have also been times where we have lost games as opposed to the opposition winning them.”

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