Tommy Freeman is keen to make ‘life a misery’ for Sevu Reece when England face New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.
In July, All Blacks flyer Reece said he knew little about Freeman or fellow England wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso when New Zealand were at home to Steve Borthwick’s men in a two-Test series.
The England duo did their best to change that perception, with Feyi-Waboso scoring tries in both Tests and Freeman going over for a score in the second match.
“Not fussed if they do or don’t know me to be honest,” Freeman told reporters this week. “The more you play, the more you’ll get known.
“Hopefully if I can make his [Reece’s] game a misery, it’s a win for me and that will make him remember me,” the 23-year-old Northampton wing added.
England had chances to win those Tests against New Zealand before losing both, with a lack of composure in key passages of play proving their undoing.
Head coach Borthwick now wants England to turn narrow losses against rugby union’s leading nations into wins, with his side having just failed to overcome New Zealand twice, France and South Africa since the start of the 2023 World Cup.
“They were a tough two games to narrowly miss out on,” said Freeman, capped 11 times by England as he reflected on 16-15 and 24-17 defeats in Dunedin and Auckland.
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“We felt like the last game could have gone either way decision-wise. To miss out like that is always difficult. We’ll definitely want to put a few wrongs right and really get stuck into them on our home ground.”
In 45 Tests between the two countries, spanning over a hundred years, England have won just eight. Their last success against the All Blacks at Twickenham was a Manu Tuilagi-inspired triumph of 2012, with the most recent encounter between the teams at ’headquarters’ ending in a 25-25 draw two years ago.
Freeman still has vivid memories of England’s 28-21 win even though he was only 11 at the time. “I was boarding at school and I remember watching it — Manu was on one. Everything worked that day for England with their strikes,” he said.
“We want the crowd to be rocking. They are always up for England against New Zealand. It will be exciting.”
Both England and New Zealand are due to name their teams on Thursday but Borthwick could bring forward his announcement to Tuesday if there are no further injury worries.
Ollie Chessum has already been ruled out of the All Blacks match and possibly the whole November series because of a knee injury, with his absence potentially paving the way for Borthwick to reunite tough-tackling flankers Tom Curry and Sam Underhill in the back row.
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