Tommy Freeman intends making it a miserable afternoon for Sevu Reece when England face New Zealand at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
All Blacks star Reece caused a stir when the rivals clashed over two Tests in July by stating that he knew little about Freeman or his fellow England wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
By the end of the series Reece was only too aware of the electric finishers after Feyi-Waboso touched down in both matches and Freeman crossed in the second game.
“Not fussed if they do or don’t know me to be honest. The more you play, the more you’ll get known,” Freeman said.
“Hopefully if I can make his game a misery it’s a win for me and that will make him remember me.”
England lost both Tests but they were hard-fought battles which could have gone their way had they shown a little more composure at crucial moments.
Head coach Steve Borthwick has challenged his players to start turning narrow defeats into memorable wins having fallen just short against New Zealand twice, France and South Africa since the start of the 2023 World Cup.
“They were a tough two games to narrowly miss out on,” Northampton’s 11-cap wing Freeman said.
“We felt like the last game could have gone either way decision-wise. To miss out like that is always difficult.
“We’ll definitely want to put a few wrongs right and really get stuck into them on our home ground.”
England have not beaten New Zealand at Twickenham since their Manu Tuilagi-inspired victory in 2012, subsequently losing narrowly three times and drawing their most recent clash at the venue in 2022.
Freeman still recalls the 38-21 win under Stuart Lancaster even though he was only 11 at the time.
“I was boarding at school and I remember watching it – Manu was on one. Everything worked that day for England with their strikes,” he said.
“Manu was breaking the line a lot and hopefully we can see the same from Ollie Lawrence on Saturday.
“We want the crowd to be rocking. They are always up for England against New Zealand. It will be exciting.”
Our first @autumnnations Test edges closer 👊
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) October 27, 2024
Steve Borthwick has named a 36-player squad, as preparations for Saturday’s game against the @AllBlacks continue 🌹@O2 | #WearTheRose pic.twitter.com/9zPmswDDVx
Borthwick is scheduled to announce his team on Thursday but that could be brought forward to Tuesday afternoon if there are no outstanding injury concerns.
Ollie Chessum has been ruled out of the New Zealand showdown and most likely the entire autumn because of a knee problem, offering the scope to reunite hard-tackling flankers Tom Curry and Sam Underhill in the back row.
Apart from how Borthwick chooses to configure his props between starters and finishers, he also faces a tough call at scrum-half where Ben Spencer, Harry Randall and Jack van Poortvliet are competing for the jersey.
Henry Slade proved his fitness on his comeback from shoulder surgery for Exeter against Harlequins on Sunday and he is competing with Alex Lozowski for selection at outside centre.
