England sense New Zealand losing ‘invincibility aura’

WXV: New Zealand v England

Venue: Langley Event Centre, Canada Date: Sunday, 6 October Kick-off: 21:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app

An unshakeable belief in one’s own abilities.

Some teams have an aura of invincibility; they just know they will never lose.

New Zealand have played England in five Rugby World Cup finals and recorded five victories, building the belief that no-one is better than them.

But the tide is starting to turn. Two defeats in their last two games against the Red Roses, who are ranked the world’s number one side, is far from invincible.

The Black Ferns also suffered a shock loss to Ireland in their opening game of WXV1, while England cruised to victory over the United States in Canada.

On Sunday the two sides meet in Vancouver in the second round of WXV, only three weeks after their last meeting at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

For England, before next year’s home World Cup, Sunday represents the perfect opportunity to damage the Black Ferns belief.

England captain Marlie Packer has suffered back-to-back World Cup final defeats by New Zealand, the last coming in dramatic fashion at Eden Park in 2022.

Some revenge was dealt last year when the Red Roses prevailed in Auckland to win last year’s WXV tournament, but the Black Ferns were missing key personnel because of injury.

John Mitchell’s side then ruthlessly blew away the world champions in the first half at the Allianz last month, strengthening England’s case as favourites for the World Cup.

With the two sides playing each other more regularly between World Cups because of the introduction of WXV, Packer believes the mentality when facing New Zealand is changing.

“For myself and the rest of the group there is not an aura around them that they are invincible,” Packer said. “We as a forward unit are as good as them and better than them.

“Our mindset is changing. It is about a mindset within a squad and a player. We have to flick that switch and have the thought that we are better than them 1-23 in Vancouver.”

Between the past two World Cup finals the Red Roses only came up against New Zealand twice, in back-to-back home fixtures in 2021, winning both.

The meeting in Vancouver marks their third game against the world champions in less than a year, leaving less secrets before the global showpiece.

“I have played New Zealand quite a few times in my career and they seem to have an aura about that they don’t lose, when they drop the ball it goes backwards, everything seems to be on their side on a matchday,” Packer, 35, added.

“The more regular we get to play them, it is not that they win, we win.

“We can get a good feel of how to beat them or how we want to play against them, as we are not seeing their rugby from a few years ago.”

This is not the first time that New Zealand’s aura of invincibility has started to fade.

Heading into their home World Cup in 2022 they were defeated four times in a row – twice by England and twice by France.

What followed was a 16-match winning run and a home World Cup triumph in front of a then record-breaking crowd for a women’s fixture of 42,579.

Part of a great plan? Trying combinations, testing depth and experiencing defeat may have helped in drawing up the required blueprint to retain the biggest prize.

But the stunning loss to sixth-ranked Ireland, who England thrashed 88-10 during this year’s Six Nations, will not have been in the plan, meaning defeat on Sunday would be a third straight defeat.

“We know that the Black Ferns will always come back stronger from disappointment, history tells us that,” England forwards coach Louis Deacon said.

“We are expecting a really tough game.”

Mitchell’s side have been doing plenty of testing of combinations too, with half-backs Lucy Packer and Zoe Harrison starting in the big win over the USA and Natasha Hunt and Holly Aitchison selected this week.

Scrum-half Hunt, who lined up alongside Aitchison against the Black Ferns last time out, takes a similar view to Deacon.

“New Zealand have always been very good at throwing the ball around but I think there’s a little bit of a danger about a New Zealand team that’s a little bit wounded.

“There is that ‘no fear’ element to it and they’ve probably just been given license to play.

“Especially in that nine and 10 jersey you need to mix it up and do something different, because whatever’s happened hasn’t worked.”

Lack of a New Zealand response on Sunday could have long-felt implications, while an England victory would stretch their winning run to 19, as they target their own unshakeable belief.

England: Kildunne; Dow, Rowland, Heard, Breach; Aitchison, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Muir, Aldcroft, Ward, Talling, M Packer, Matthews

Replacements: Atkin-Davies, Carson, Bern, Galligan, Feaunati, L Packer, Harrison, Scarratt

New Zealand: Holmes; Leti-I’iga, Brunt, Demant (co-captain), Vahaakolo; King, Joseph; Viliko, Ponsonby, Kalounivale, Bremner, Roos, Mikaele-Tu’u, Tukuafu (co-captain), Olsen-Baker

Replacements: Lolohea, Henwood, Rule, Vaipulu, Sae, Hohaia, Paul, Tui