All Blacks end of year England Test date confirmed

The All Blacks will play England at Twickenham on Saturday 6 November, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) have confirmed today.

The Hillary Shield Test at Twickenham had been scheduled to take place on Saturday December 4 but NZRU Chief Executive Steve Tew said the RFU had agreed to change the date.

“We indicated to the RFU that, if possible, we would have preferred to play the match earlier in November to allow our players the chance to get home earlier. The RFU agreed to the change, so that’s great news,” Mr Tew said.

The announcement of the date for the England Test also confirms that the All Blacks will again attempt the Grand Slam for the ninth time in their history, with Test matches already scheduled against Scotland (Edinburgh, 13 November), Ireland (Dublin, 20 November) and Wales (Cardiff, 27 November).

The All Blacks first won the Grand Slam in 1978 and repeated the feat in 2005 and 2008.

Mr Tew said he also wanted to acknowledge the efforts made by the RFU and Premier Rugby, the umbrella body for England’s Premiership clubs, in making the date change.

“Now the date for the England Test has been finalised we can look forward to what is going to be another exciting Grand Slam challenge for the All Blacks,” he said.

Mr Tew said the date change also gave the NZRU and the Australian Rugby Union the opportunity to look at the possibility of playing a Bledisloe Cup match in Asia on October 30 when both teams are heading to the UK. The venue and other details will be confirmed in due course.


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