New Zealand look to hand England their third home defeat in fifteen days

chickendinner’s look at the last of the autumn internationals

Almost twelve months have passed since England’s rugby team were recognised as the best British sporting team of the year at the Sports Personality of the Year awards and since then it’s all gone downhill. First they flopped once more at the Six Nations, then they were comfortably beaten in New Zealand before the recent home defeats against Australia and South Africa, the latter of which was England’s heaviest ever loss at Twickenham. Have they got a chance against the All Blacks on Saturday? Probably not. chickendinner are undeterred by that though and have scoured around to find some stats that suggest England have some hope:

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» On the last three occasions that England have lost successive games they have bounced back to win the third.

» England’s last loss by a 36 point margin or greater came against South Africa in the World Cup, from which they recovered to win four on the spin and reach the final.

» Every year so far this decade, England have beaten one of the southern hemisphere’s big three - Australia, New Zealand and South Africa - in October or November in either an autumn international or at the World Cup.

» England were the last northern hemisphere team to win a home game over the All Blacks, although that victory  did come way back in 2002.

» Martin Johnson was victorious in his last two clashes against New Zealand as a player and although appointed manager, wasn’t on the touchline for the two away defeats earlier this year.

» England have only lost three consecutive games at Twickenham once in the last 35 years and even on that occasion there was an eight month gap between two of the defeats. In 2006, England lost two autumn internationals at home but fought back to win the third 23-21 over South Africa.

Posted: November 27th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn |