"We fight for each other" - Tom Curry: England fired up for All Blacks challenge this Saturday

England back row Tom Curry expressed how his teammates are 'hungry' for the upcoming Test of their mettle, as New Zealand currently hold a three-match winning streak against their hosts on Saturday. The last time England took on the All Blacks was an Autumnal clash from last year, which brought about a narrow 24-22 Kiwi triumph at the home of English Rugby.

This followed on from the two defeats to New Zealand in the previous Summer, as Borthwick's men were defeated across Dunedin and Auckland. Curry shared how his side is ready to make amends for their recent string of defeats to Scott Roberston's men.

"You play teams quite frequently and then you don't play them for a long time, it's like with everyone you want to make the most of what is in front of you. They don't come round often and this group is hungry and there's a few who want to grab everything with both hands and that's a special place to be. The group feels in a good spot, doesn't mean everything goes right but we fight for each other."

"It does feel a bit calmer, it sounds ridiculous but people are surprised to be in front, but now we're not surprised. You have to get through those tough periods to get there unfortunately but that's life and that's sport, I wouldn't want it any other way."

The last time England defeated the All Blacks was back in Japan, for when the two sides clashed at the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-finals. Six years have since passed with a plethora of personnel changes from both sides, providing a fresh cast of characters for this upcoming fixture.

Now one of the more experienced members of the England side with 62 caps under his belt, Curry was one of the few current stars of Borthwick's squad that were apart of England's famous 19-7 triumph, that is often heralded as one of the greatest England performances of the professional era. Curry was asked as to what the mentality was like back in Japan some six years ago;

"Just take every day as it comes, get excited by it. The most important thing is we get better again, we get our learnings from Fiji and once you get that genuine excitement, you can get that feeling where we feel brilliant. I feel it's that. And it might not be everything going perfect, in 2019 I remember we had a lineout on our own five metre, George Kruis changed the call, mixed up one and two, and I got it wrong, and the next time it was just bang, bang, in the corner, score. Nothing's ever the same and we want to create the same."

A 21-year-old Tom Curry was tasked with starting on the blind-side flank for England's fabled semi-final win, with the young Sale man impressive to all onlookers and especially that of his former England head coach Eddie Jones. Now, Curry is an experienced 27-year-old stalwart of the side, who is impressed by the efforts of the young guns that are breaking into the squad, namely fellow back rows Guy Pepper and Henry Pollock, along with Sale teammate Asher Opoku-Fordjour.

"It's good to have those two [Pepper and Opoku-Fordjour], and especially [Henry] Pollock sprinting around and it's good. I remember being that age and you do want to push and be on the starting team and now you realise how important that is to the squad. It is only important if people like me come back and push as well, no one can be settled. We've got no d*ckheads, so it's good."

Having turned back the clock to 2019, Curry now had the easier task of thinking back to the 2024 Autumn Series, in what was a miserable time within the England camp. England succumbed to a trio of defeats against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with the sole triumph of the series coming against Eddie Jones' Japan team. Curry shared how the camp feels a lot more positive now, as England are on a hot run of form with nine straight wins, with the All Blacks providing the perfect proving ground to turn their streak into double digits.

"The same way in terms of, you probably learn to lose, I think we're starting to learn to win a bit. It's tiny margins, Test match rugby is tiny margins and I suppose you have to go through those tough times to learn what it's really like to learn to win. Happy but we won't get too far ahead of ourselves, it's a bit of an exciting challenge next week."