The pick of this weekend’s November International Rugby matches looks to be England’s clash with New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday and the pre-match betting suggests it will be a close contest
England v New Zealand, Saturday 15th November, Twickenham, KO 17:10 (South African time)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Luc Ramos (FFR), Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
Weather Forecast – Twickenham
England:
England saw off Fiji 38-18 at Twickenham last week. They had problems early on and only led 14-13 at half time and 21-18 after 60 minutes but 4 of their final total of 6 tries arrived in the second half.
At the start of the November series England beat the Wallabies 25-7 at this venue and again the damage was done later in the game with 2 of their 4 tries coming inside the last 10 minutes to put the game to bed.
England were in Argentina in July and they won both test matches (35-12 and 22-17) before they thrashed USA (40-5).
They had a solid 6 Nations early in the year, winning 4 and losing 1 of their matches to finish in second spot, just 1 point behind title winners France. They lost their opening match of that tournament in Ireland (27-22) before narrow wins at home to France (26-25) and Scotland (16-15). They also put Italy away (47-24) in another home fixture before a thumping (68-14) victory in Wales.
In the November international series of 2024 England lost at home to New Zealand (24-22), Australia (42-37) and South Arica (29-20) before beating Japan (59-14).
After this England will host Argentina
New Zealand:
The All Blacks beat Scotland 25-17 at Murrayfield last week, a margin of victory that was pretty much in line with the bookmakers main handicap line had settled. They were 17-0 up at half time but the Scots came back to level things up. New Zealand were a man down and certainly rode their luck before scoring the decisive try through Damian McKenzie (on 74 minutes) and the same player also landed an even later penalty.
New Zealand took on Ireland in Chicago before heading to Europe. They started as favourites at around 5.5 points on the main handicap line and conceded the first 10 points of the game before reducing the deficit to 10-7 at half time and completing the comeback in the second half to run out winners 26-13.
New Zealand won 4 and lost 2 of their Rugby Championship matches this year, finishing as runners up to the Springboks with both teams on 19 points.
In July New Zealand completed a 3-0 clean sweep of a visiting French team, winning the first test 31-27, the second 43-17 and the third 29-19.
In the November 2024 series the All Blacks beat England (24-22) at Twickenham and also got the better of Ireland (23-13) in Dublin. They lost a thriller in France (30-29) and finished off with a 29-11 victory in Italy.
After this New Zealand will visit Wales
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2024 INT Twickenham England 22-24 New Zealand
Jul 2024 INT Auckland New Zealand 24-17– England
Jul 2024 INT Dunedin New Zealand 16-15 England
Nov 2022 INT Twickenham England 25-25 New Zealand
Team News
England: 15 Feddie Steward, Tom Roebuck, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Guy Pepper, 5 Alex Coles, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George, 1 Fin Baxter.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Chandler Cunningham-South, 20 Tom Curry, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Marcus Smith
New Zealand: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Leroy Carter, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Quinn Tupaea, 11 Leicester Fainga’anuku, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Peter Lakai, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Simon Parker, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Scott Barrett (captain), 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot.
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Damian McKenzie
The Betting
Average early show, subject to change
England -1.5 points at 9/10
New Zealand +1.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this week’s internationals will be posted on this blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
