New Zealand 13 England 15: The World Cup is still four months away, but a first England Test victory in New Zealand for 30 years has persuaded coach Clive Woodward that he has a team more than capable of bringing home the game's ultimate prize.
As he said yesterday, "we're doing things that English teams haven't done", and no longer is he fighting shy in public of pushing his side's World Cup credentials. After a dozen Test wins in a row, an unprecedented sequence in the English game, an historic first victory on Wallaby turf on Saturday would simply swell the rising tide of expectancy.
"My mind-set now is that, regardless of who plays, we can win," said Woodward yesterday, making the point that Jonny Wilkinson's match-winning Wellington boot was far from the only reason England won a tight game which somehow managed to be both ugly and momentous at the same time.
"We are a tired team and you do keep pinching yourself when you've won and played nowhere near your best - I don't think we're going to get anywhere near the World Cup if, technically, we play the way we played on Saturday night. But, on the plus side, the defence and will to win were there in abundance. Sometimes you can't put a price on that."
The days of false modesty are also over. Woodward has decided there is no point being coy about England's ambitions and reckons his team are "thriving" on the extra pressure which that inevitably places on them.
"I kept saying the All Blacks would have to play really well to beat us. We would have been hugely disappointed if we'd lost. Suddenly we're coming out on top in these matches, but I don't think you get lucky.
"I'm hoping to go to the World Cup with momentum and, if we can get another win this weekend, that would be brilliant. Confidence is everything. We don't want to go into the World Cup on the back of a loss."
If any team should be able to recognise opponents with a growing aura it is the All Blacks, and when the home coach, John Mitchell, conceded that "psychologically it's fantastic for them", he was simply confirming what every watching England fan already knew. He was equally complimentary about England's resilience in conversation with Woodward on Saturday night.
By contrast, the snide reaction of Wallaby coach Eddie Jones - "I heard they kicked their way to victory" - missed the point completely. Because what will alarm the entire Southern Hemisphere most on sober reflection was not how England played in a game marred by incessant stoppages and a capricious gusting wind, but the way they responded defensively when the odds seemed impossibly stacked against them.
The first half, frankly, was a disjointed mess, and England's 9-6 lead looked impossibly slender when they were reduced to 13 men by yellow cards for Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio. But despite the All Blacks' two-man advantage the visitors did not concede a point in those desperate 10 minutes, and Wilkinson's fourth wind-defying penalty, plus a drop-goal, contrasted starkly with Carlos Spencer's wobbly goalkicking.
Spencer missed four penalty attempts, but an All Black win would have reignited another refereeing controversy because New Zealand's solitary try by Doug Howlett should not have been allowed. Both Howlett and Caleb Ralph were a metre or two ahead of Spencer when the outhalf kicked into the English 22, but, unlike in rugby league, the video referee is not empowered to rule it out. It is time union took such elementary precautions.
Not that Woodward will be holding his breath, any more than he expects certain Kiwis - "It's always tough losing to England; you hear the way they gloat," complained the talented flanker Richie McCaw - to be more respectful when England return here for two Tests next year.
"We're unloved anywhere we go; whoever's the next captain or the next coach, nothing will change," said Woodward. "It's part of the fabric of the game . . . people like to beat the English at rugby union. You've got to be inspired by it, not worry about it. We just want to arrive in October knowing we've got every chance of being successful."
It is a compelling mix: the coach who wears his heart on his sleeve and a team with such inner fortitude that they now regard losing as unthinkable. In those 12 consecutive wins they have scored 43 tries and, even more tellingly, conceded only 13.
"Experience counts going into a big championship, I've no doubt about that," said Woodward. It is the rest of the world, not England, who will feel most uneasy this morning.
NEW ZEALAND: Howlett; Rokocoko (Muliaina, 80), Nonu, Umaga, Ralph; Spencer, Marshall (Devine, 49); Hewett, Oliver (Mealamu, 57), Somerville, Jack, Williams, Thorne (capt), McCaw, So'oialo (Collins, 78).
ENGLAND: Lewsey (Luger, 80); Robinson, Greenwood, Tindall, Cohen; Wilkinson, Bracken; Rowntree, Thompson, Leonard (Vickery, h-t), Johnson (capt), Kay, Hill (Worsley, 80), Back, Dallaglio.
Sin-bin: Back, Dallaglio.
Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).
