Dan Carter has warned England that New Zealand will be fuelled by revenge when the nations clash for the first time since their dramatic 2019 World Cup semi-final.
England stunned the holders by emerging 19-7 winners in one of the great victories in their rugby history and Carter insists that wound will have festered over the last three years.
The All Blacks great believes his former teammates Aaron Smith, Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick will be particularly driven having been involved in previous World Cup triumphs.
All three participated in 2015, with Whitelock also starting in 2011, and there are a total of eight survivors from the rivals’ last meeting,
“It’s been too long between games and that’s why I think this game is going to be an absolute cracker. That scarcity brings extra excitement,” Carter told the PA news agency.
“There’s also the extra excitement after what happened in 2019 when England completely outplayed the All Blacks. That hurt and will have hurt a lot of the players who are involved that day.
“When you have a defeat like that, the one thing you want to do is play against that opposition again, but we haven’t been able to do that for so long.
“Knowing some of the players who were involved in that game, there will be some some personal motivation going on there.
“There are players who have been a part of successful World Cups for New Zealand in 2011 and 2015, so being part of a losing World Cup team really does hurt. They will have have an extra edge for this game.”
The All Blacks arrive at Twickenham with a six-Test winning run that helped clinch the Rugby Championship, but prior to that they lost six out of eight matches in a rare slump that led to calls for head coach Ian Foster to be sacked.
“New Zealand are building. It’s obvious that they’re not happy with their performances throughout the year, but they’ve had some fantastic games and shown what they’re capable of,” Carter said.
“But every time you put on that All Black jersey the expectation is that you win every single game and more often than not, they do.
“So for them to have the win rate that they have this year is disappointing and they will be more disappointed than anyone.
“For them to to beat England at Twickenham in their last Test match of the year… it’s a huge game for them.
“After this they will have a couple of months off so they need to win because there’s nothing worse than having a few rocks underneath your beach towel throughout the summer, especially leading into World Cup year.
“They will have targeted England in this autumn series and they will have been building towards it as if it were a World Cup final.”
Dan Carter will be covering this Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series match between England and New Zealand at 5.30pm exclusively on Prime Video, with coverage starting from 4.30pm
