Kyle Sinckler has lifted the lid on the team meeting that inspired England to beat New Zealand in the World Cup last time they met.
The two countries renew hostilities on Saturday, with Bristol prop Sinckler reminding his team mates they need to be ready for "big boy” rugby. New Zealand have not lost at Twickenham since 2012, but England approach the game with a belief born of their spectacular display in that semi-final in Japan.
Sinckler says the spark which ignited one of rugby's great 80-minute performances can be traced back to a team meeting Eddie Jones called six days earlier. “We had beaten Australia in the quarter-final the previous day and normally Sunday is a day off for recovery," he said.
"You never really see Eddie. Eddie called the meeting at nine in the morning and everyone was like ‘Jesus, what’s happened here? Has anyone done anything!?’ I'll never forget that meeting, in terms of how we set the week up with our gameplan.
“‘We’re going at them, walk towards the danger’,” Eddie told us. “‘That’s one of the things they pride themselves on but we’re going to go for them.’
To illustrate his point, Jones had bought a samurai sword at an antique shop in Tokyo - along with some kiwi fruit from a nearby market. In front of the squad he slashed at the fruit, cutting them in two, before declaring: “There you go boys. See how we do it now?”
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Sinckler said: “It was a surreal experience as we had no doubt after that meeting that we were going to win. It was the only game in my rugby career where everything went to plan.
“Literally everything Eddie said would happen, happened. We were so dominant. All the momentum was with us, the gameplan was on point, they did exactly what we anticipated.”
New Zealand’s only points came from the equivalent of an England own goal, a miss-thrown line-out. That apart they were kept under the thumb. Sinckler has no doubt the energy and belief originated that Sunday morning in Oita.
“We knew from that moment it was coming,” he said. “I was sitting in the meeting fizzing. Usually on a Sunday you wake up going ‘Oh my god, how am I going to do this again?’ After that meeting I felt ‘We’ve got this’. It was so special.”
All of which guarantees nothing this week. The All Blacks did dodge a bullet against Scotland but they had rung the changes. England expect the very best version of New Zealand at Twickenham. “It’s big-boy rugby now,” said Sinckler. “We are confident, we are at home but we are under no illusions.
“I’m just grateful to be involved after the back injury I've had. To be honest, it left me wondering whether I’d ever get back to this type of occasion. I was in so much pain I couldn’t sit down. I couldn’t put my shoes and my socks on. I was literally bed-bound for three or four months.”
