Kyle Sinckler has lifted the lid on the “surreal” team meeting that left him certain England would beat the All Blacks and reach the World Cup final in 2019, labelling the two sides’ first meeting since then “big-boy rugby”.
Eddie Jones famously brought a samurai sword into the meeting and sliced kiwi fruit in two in an effort to convince his squad how New Zealand could be beaten. Sinckler, fresh from scoring a try in the quarter-final win over Australia, remembers that the whole squad was transfixed by Jones’s left-field move and that England were left in no doubt that they would beat the All Blacks six days later.
