England looking to raise the bar

Like New Zealand, England are in camp this week, where thoughts have turned to the last time these two sides met, in front of over 10,000 fans in London in the World Cup final which New Zealand edged by three points.

Street said: We have spent some time this week looking at the World Cup final again its obviously the last time we played each other and the most recent footage of New Zealand who havent played since. There are a million reasons why we lost that game and none at the same time. I think ultimately when the players have looked back they have seen that they just didnt execute the chances they had and of course the quality of the opposition had an impact in that.

In the past year Street has had ample opportunity to prepare for this series with a Six Nations, a Nations Cup and two tests in France while the A side were also in action in Europe. He says the key focus this year has been about improving every area of Englands game while developing a much wider playing pool.

Weve looked at a few areas but its really about upping our performance all over the park particularly at the breakdown which is somewhere we had room for improvement. This past year we have put a lot of focus on ensuring that we have deepened our playing pool at the top level and we have done that while at the same time juggling the more demanding schedule of the national Sevens programme. We have unearthed some new players and weve had a lot of new faces involved this year.

England go into the New Zealand games on the back of two losses in France though Street took a young team with five new players capped. From those games he has brought forward youngsters Hannagh Gallagher and Alex Matthews into the full senior squad.

The games against France gave me a chance to see more players in an England shirt had we been going simply to win those games then I probably would have picked a different squad but we came pretty close against a very strong French team. Alex and Hannah are young players in particular who really used their opportunities in France. We knew they were both very talented but we found out that they were mentally ready as well and they have earned their place in this squad.

New Zealand havent fared so well with their activity over the past year playing no games since the World Cup Final but Street doesnt believe it will make a difference to the strength of their challenge.

Common sense would say yes that should have an impact but New Zealand are used to going for long periods without games and it never really seems to affect them.

One thing Street will have in common with his New Zealand counterpart will be trying to keep all his players fit for a tough schedule of three games in a week.

Its a very tough week and I guess the idea was to replicate a World Cup time period when you play games in quick succession though you wouldnt obviously be playing a team as good as New Zealand three times in a row. We are more used to it than they would be because weve been at the Nations Cup the last few years in a row and thats the same format there. By the time we get to game three it may well be about the last woman standing and whoever is left in the best shape.

The two teams will meet first at Twickenham Stadium on November 26th, kick off 5pm following the Australia versus Barbarians clash. The teams will then meet again on November 29thand December 3rdat Esher RFC.