Adam Williams presents his prediction for the Friendly International rugby match.
The teams have clashed 45 times in their storied history, with New Zealand emerging victorious on 35 occasions. But how many of these 35 triumphs for the All Blacks were by a convincing margin of at least 15 points?
England
The last such victory was a decade ago. In June 2014, the New Zealanders secured a home win (36:13). Back in the 2010s, such scorelines were notably more frequent. Recently, however, England have closed the gap on their Southern Hemisphere rivals. Or have the All Blacks become weaker? The answer leans towards the latter. The golden generation of that team has passed, and they are no longer coached by Sir Graham Henry, who led New Zealand to the World Cup in 2011, followed by Sir Steve Hansen four years later. For two World Cups now, the All Blacks have been left without gold.
New Zealand
Now, the New Zealand squad have a new coach in Scott Robertson, and under his guidance, they barely clinched second place in the 2024 Rugby Championship. Before suffering three defeats in the Southern Hemisphere tournament, New Zealand played two summer test matches against England. The All Blacks won both, but firstly, they were on home turf, and secondly, the victories were narrow: 24:17 and 16:15. In the first match, England nearly scored a try in the 80th minute, but the grounding was absent, and the video referee panel found an infringement by the guests.
England vs New Zealand Prediction
In their last five encounters over six years, New Zealand have won three times, with one draw and only a single victory for England. This doesn't necessarily mean a loss for England. The largest margin in the All Blacks' winning games was seven points, and as mentioned earlier, those could have ended in a draw. Therefore, the optimal outcome would be an England win, while the minimum would be a loss by a few points.
