England play the All Blacks - a question

[Maidman]

Yes Drc_007 I believe the date in question is the 4th of November which if true will fall three weeks after the final Southern Hemisphere National games, Initially the squad was due to travel on the 3rd of November as their first planned match was on the 11th but my contact in the travel industry of which I have many as I worked for 25 years in that industry, now says they have changed this departure date to 26 October.

I think the AB's were always due to play at Twickenham on the 4th November, the fixture originally being intended for the Barbarians. I understand that England are only considering the date for themselves because the Barbars are being a bit slow to confirm certain aspects of the fixture.

Whilst I would relish seeing England take on the AB's and it would doubtless be a good match, I think I agree with SCW when he says he hopes it doesn't go ahead. For one thing, the AB's will arrive having play together for several weeks, whilst England would have had little more than a week together. Also, give the B&I Lions tour this summer, England players will be exhausted.

I think England we are still building, so let's play the AB's when we have reached our peak, rather than in a hastily arranged match when we aren't really ready.

[Noddy555]

Disagree Maidman. Should we beat the Irish convincingly tomorrow then we will have played all the nations ranked from 1 to 9 in the world rankings with the exception of the all blacks, This England team is now ready to take them on. It's a pity we have to wait until November. Should however the British Lions prove victorious against the all Blacks this summer, imagine how depressed the All Blacks will feel especially as most of the Lions team are made up of English players. They may indeed wish to pull out of any fixture that is tba this year.

[DickyP]

Whilst I really want to see the ABs play England this is a stupid fixture.

1. A goodly percentage of the England team will have had no summer off because of the Lions.

2. Eddie Jones had already said that he wasn't going to consider English Lions for the AIs to let them recover. EJ is therefore in a lose-lose situation: he either goes with a weakened team or he doesn't let the Lions have any let-up.

3. There will be no preparation time for the English team and the ABs will be nicely in the swing of things, albeit at the end of their season. They'll have had their normal off season, followed by the Lions and RC to get used to each other: England would be playing first game for 5 months!

So much for player welfare!

[johnthegriff]

I assume the Autumn Internationals are already planned so if England are to play New Zealand do we cancel an existing arrangement or do we play an extra game maybe outside the international window? The RFU constantly bleat about player welfare whilst arranging extra matches then blame the clubs for player burn-out.

[G.K]

Subsidising the NZ game? Didn'''''''t Joubert do enough that way in 2011?

Yes - disgraceful decisions in that final. SA refs should be banned from all finals, robbed the best team on the day. The ABs should name any new stadium after him.

[tigerburnie]

I bet there's less interest in it now lol