No home advantage? All Blacks wary of 'exciting' England under Dunedin roof

By Cameron McMillan

All Blacks Vice-Captain Jordie Barrett is wary the covered stadium could suit England’s style of play when the two sides meet in Dunedin on Saturday.

The All Blacks open the 2024 season at Forsyth Barr Stadium against an England team Barrett dubbed as ‘exciting’ - a term not often used by the side to describe the tourists on previous visits to New Zealand.

England have put in some strong performances under coach Steve Borthwick – falling just a few minutes short of reaching another World Cup final before being pipped by the Springboks in the semifinal stage. Despite finishing third in a tight Six Nations earlier this year they earned an impressive win over Ireland and almost got the better of France in Paris.

They have the upper hand over the All Blacks having played most recently with a 52-17 win over Japan two weeks ago.

“They’re a very strong side. Played awesome against Ireland and France the back end of the Six Nations and put points on Japan,” Barrett said today.

“We think they’re going to bring a bit of line speed and they play with Marcus Smith and a few other guys who ignite their backline. Any bit of momentum they get, they’ll play on top.

“They’re an exciting team and I think under the roof that will suit the way they’re heading as a team,” he added.

In 2022, Ireland came to Dunedin and earned their first win in New Zealand for the first time in 117 years before claiming an historic series win a week later in Auckland.

England named their side yesterday with Smith named at first-five with Ollie Lawrence and the experienced Henry Slade outside them - though the side features an inexperienced exciting back three of Tommy Freeman, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and fullback George Furbank who have 23 tests between them.

Barrett has made 57 appearances for the All Blacks but only two were against England, a draw and a defeat. Neither of those games were on home soil as England make their first trip to New Zealand since 2014, which included a 28-27 defeat at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The All Blacks have been in camp in Wellington for the past week and arrived in Dunedin yesterday for the season opener. Barrett said part of the Wellington camp was learning a new language under the new coaching set-up under Scott Robertson.

“We’re building nicely. It’s been a good few days,” a visibly muddy Barrett added.

“It’s inevitable when you change personnel, you have different approaches and different ways of thinking. That was always going to happen.

“A bit of different language and the senior guys having to learn some terms but it’s exciting, Fresh change and the boys are looking forward to what’s ahead.

“Fundamentally rugby is rugby. So you just got to get your core roles right,” the new vice-captain said.

Fellow senior All Black Patrick Tuipulotu added how the squad have been back in the class learning the past week along with working combinations on the field.

“These camps are probably more about connecting, laying in how we want to play. End of last week was pretty busy on the field and off the field in terms of learning in the classroom.

“But then being able to connect, get to know each other, get to know the new coaching staff and get our heads around the new sort of language in terms of our plays and how we want to play,” he added.

“On the field it’s been pretty much hard yakka and off the field there’s been more hard work in terms of learning. Whenever we get a chance to sit down and have dinner and get to know each other we’ll do that....Razor’s gone through our theming and our mindset stuff he’s running, as well as getting all the boys and leaders together to get this group galvanized and ready for a pretty tough England test.”

The Blues skipper, who came back from a knee injury to lead them to the Super Rugby title in a superb showing in the final, confirmed he’s fit and ready for selection on Saturday.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission