Midfield maestro Jeremy Guscott has set his World Cup sights on the All Blacks, and admitted: "If you cannot get excited about this game, then there is something wrong."
Guscott has reclaimed the England number 12 jersey for tomorrow's Twickenham showdown, and has been handed a golden opportunity to make it third time lucky against the tournament favourites.
There are few missing pieces in 34-year-old Guscott's sizeable rugby jigsaw, but an England victory over the All Blacks is one of the more glaring. His two previous attempts both ended in failure - the 1991 World Cup opener and four years later at Newlands, Cape Town when Jonah Lomu ran England ragged during a hopelessly one-sided semi-final.
Despite England tackling New Zealand for the fifth time since coach Clive Woodward took charge barely two years ago, injury and a 1998 summer tour breather mean that tomorrow represents Guscott's first chance to avenge that Lomu-inspired rout.
Both players will be back for more this weekend, an eagerly-awaited Pool B encounter that should see the winners avoid a daunting quarterfinal against world champions South Africa in Paris on October 24th. The Bath centre, a substitute against Italy last weekend, swapped places with his fellow British Lion Will Greenwood as Woodward's solitary starting line-up change.
And such is Guscott's enthusiasm for the sell-out 70,000 clash that anyone would think he's making an England debut all over again, not winning his 64th cap 10 years after it all started.
"You cannot help but get excited about playing against the All Blacks, especially in an awesome competition like the World Cup," he said. England coach Clive Woodward was in no mood yesterday to involve himself with the inevitable prematch hype about World Cup 99's biggest confrontation so far.
"You can get carried away with it all," claimed the coach. "All the ballyhoo behind the scenes is irrelevant - it's 15 players against 15 from 4.30 on Saturday that counts."
Woodward reported that Greenwood, who limped off nursing a hamstring twinge against the Italians, is currently "99 per cent fit" but would be replaced by Bath's Mike Catt on the substitutes' bench if a late change was deemed necessary.
Greenwood apart, Woodward has made one other bench alteration, calling up Tim Rodber and temporarily abandoning his policy of having an entire front-row in reserve.
Northampton lock Rodber, out of favour and then injured during England's four-game World Cup warmup period, won't lack motivation, given Danny Grewcock's emergence. Leicester prop Graham Rowntree drops out from the 22.
While England are working themselves up into a frenzy over tomorrow's World Cup Group B match against New Zealand at Twickenham, New Zealand coach John Hart is dampening down expectations.
"Saturday is not a final, it's a qualifying game," said Hart. "And there's a long way to go. You've got to be very careful thinking this game is that big."
