Can England record what would be a shock win against the All Blacks at Twickenham this afternoon?(credit:
The_Richards)
New Zealand are hot favourites (1/9 William Hill) to heap more pressure on team manager Martin Johnson.
Skybet make the World Cup winning captain 1/2 to still be in post come April 1st 2010 but if the All Blacks make fools out of England this weekend those odds could lengthen considerably.
Johnson has said this week that his team has been selected specifically with New Zealand in mind. That being the case he must be expecting his side to do a lot of defending after replacing the attacking minded Shane Geraghty and Tom Croft with the more defensive Ayoola Erinle and Joe Worsley. Given the lack of creativity from England so far this month and the defensive feel of this side the 7/4 (Ladbrokes) that all the home side’s points come from Jonny Wilkinson doesn’t look a bad bet.
Another change sees Ugo Monye revert to his favoured position on the wing after a terrible time at full back against Argentina but New Zealand fly half Dan Carter can still expose him out wide with cross field kicks. If so, Monye’s opposite number Zac Guildford (11/1Skybet to be 1st tryscorer) could be the main beneficiary of any dropped balls.
In both games so far this autumn England have looked to get on the scoreboard as quickly as possible with Wilkinson landing early drop goals on both occasions. Sky Bet go 10/1 that an England drop goal will be the first scoring play.
After picking a near second string against Italy last week New Zealand welcome back all their star names for the Twickenham encounter and should be confident of victory. Even though they didn’t hit top gear against Italy or against Wales a fortnight ago the prospect of inflicting greater damage on England may be the spur New Zealand need to raise their game another level. A win by 11-15 points is 11/2 (William Hill)
Teams:
England: 15 Mark Cueto, 14 Matt Banahan, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Ayoola Erinle, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Paul Hodgson, 1 Tim Payne, 2 Dylan Hartley, 3 Duncan Bell, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Steve Borthwick(c), 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Lewis Moody, 8 James Haskell
Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson, 17 David Wilson, 18 Louis Deacon, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Danny Care, 21 Shane Geraghty, 22 Mathew Tait.
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Zac Guildford, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 1 Tony Woodcock, 2 Andrew Hore, 3 Owen Franks, 4 Brad Thorn, 5 Tom Donnelly, 6 Adam Thomson, 7 Richie McCaw, 8 Kieran Read.
Replacements: 16 Corey Flynn / Aled de Malmanche, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Jerome Kaino, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Tamati Ellison.