Why a clash with the All Blacks is the true test of England’s progress
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Harry Latham-Coyle Fri, 14 November 2025 at 7:20 am UTC·6 min read It is 120 years since a New Zealand team first came to England, the inaugural All Blacks making their way to the British Isles via Montevideo and Tenerife. By the time the “Originals” arrived in London for a meeting with the national team they had already played 24 matches and the encounter moved from Blackheath to Crystal Palace to accommodate a spectatorship that some estimations placed at 100,000, many of them non-paying, with the future King George V among them. Just another week? More than a century on a visit from the All Blacks still stirs special feelings. England players have remarked, publicly and privately, of...