Rugby Union: Tom Wood calls of party
TOM WOOD doesn't want a big party if England beat New Zealand on Saturday.
The All Blacks visit Twickenham next and forward Wood
believes it should be treated as normal to beat the world champions.
"We want to get to the position where we don't declare national holidays every time we beat them," he said.
"We want it to be a regular occurrence.
We want it to be a level playing field. We want to be considered their equals or better than them.
"We want it to be that when anyone comes to Twickenham, they are underdogs, not us."
Wood was in the pack when England famously trounced New Zealand by a record 38-21 a year ago.
The All Blacks had been unbeaten in 20 matches before that and have won all 12 since.
England
have a record of nine wins in 10 matches and are pushing hard for
second place in the Test rankings, with New Zealand way ahead at the
top.
Wood added: "There is a psychological aspect to it. Everyone puts New Zealand on a pedestal.
"A lot of teams are beaten before they go into the game because they expect the All Blacks to win. Everyone does.
"That's what we got right last year and what we have to recreate this year.
"You
could argue we caught them then a bit complacent or at the end of a
long season. There will be none of that this time. This will be the game
that matters."
England were not totally convincing against the
Pumas on Saturday as they failed to build on a decent first-half
performance that brought tries for Joe Launchbury, Billy Twelvetrees and
Chris Ashton.
They added just one more after the break, from replacement Ben Morgan.
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