England head coach Steve Borthwick was forced to change up his squad, ahead of the second Test against New Zealand this Saturday at Eden Park. After being one of England’s top attacking threats in Dunedin, George Furbank sustained a back injury and has been ruled out of the final match of the Summer series. The Northampton Saints man has been replaced by Freddie Steward, who slots straight into the starting XV.
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett was asked about the change at fullback, and hopes that the Leicester Tigers man has a quiet night in Auckland. Steward was one of the top performers the last time England and the All Blacks met ahead of this two-match series, as the fullback carved through New Zealand’s defence with excellent attacking lines throughout the 25-25 draw at Twickenham back in 2022. Scott Barrett discussed the withdrawal of George Furbank, and how he hopes to silence Steward at Eden Park in yesterday’s media session.
“Yeah, George Furbank, he certainly challenged our line from your (England’s) counter attack. So I think Freddie would certainly do the same, he’s potentially a little bit safer, potentially under the high ball. So that’s a big strength of his game. So it’s about us trying to win those contests and hopefully he has a quiet night.”
Certainly a man of few words compared to his animated head coach Scott Robertson, Scott Barrett then went on to address how his side are expecting to take on England prop Fin Baxter. The young Harlequins loose-head made his England Test debut off the bench for an injured Joe Marler, as Baxter impressed all onlookers with a solid 60-minute outing in Dunedin.
Baxter has been named by England head coach Steve Borthwick to make his first start, with the 22-year-old taking the number one jersey for the upcoming clash at Eden Park. Barrett was quietly impressed by the young front row, and expects Baxter to be buzzing ahead of his first start in the red rose.
“He was actually quite impressive coming on the park early introduction into the game. He certainly held down the scrum and was pretty agile around the park. Yeah, he is a good young talent and he’d be excited to take in his first start.”
Baxter was caught up amongst one of the biggest talking points of the Dunedin Test, as the young loose-head mixed it up in the controversial scrum. The questions marks around the All Blacks front row were raised ahead of Baxter’s introduction, as Joe Marler and Will Stuart routinly got the upper hand over Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax. The Highlanders prop was seen on a number of occasions to be popping his head up out of the pack, and pushing away from the direct contest in Dunedin.
However, the match officials in the South Island did not penalise the scrummaging, with the controversy spilling out into the following week’s media build up as tensions rise between both camps. Scott Barrett was then asked as to whether he expects the referee for the weekend, Australian Nic Berry, to call the match any differently to that of Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli, to which the All Blacks captain replied succinctly;
“Yeah, Nick Berry, I think we are used to him in Super Rugby. But I think like any ref, you can only influence them by playing clean, accurate. So that’s sort of been our focus, not just in that (scrum).”
“I guess, the challenge this week is no two test matches are the same, and England are certainly going to be better. So that’s where our focus has been on, our group getting better to put in a performance that we’re proud of.”