November 28th, 2008 by Gregory Jones

Having lost the last two matches of this year’s Autumn Internationals, Martin Johnson’s England side will need to pull out all the stops if they are to have any chance of beating New Zealand tomorrow. England suffered heavy defeats at the hands of Australia and South Africa at Twickenham over the last fortnight and they are in desperate need of a strong performance in their final match against the All Blacks.

Following the announcement that Danny Cipriani will be starting on the bench, it is clear that Martin Johnson is taking a no-nonsense approach to his role as head coach. Following a series of mistakes in the previous games, the 21 year old fly-half will not be included in the starting line-up at Twickenham this Saturday.

Whether or not England can pull together and beat New Zealand remains to be seen, but the bookies and fans are not holding out too much hope. It seems that most fans are now looking ahead to next year’s Six Nations. The competition kicks-off in February and England’s first challenge is Italy. Other opening weekend fixtures include Ireland taking on France at Croke Park and Scotland hosting Wales at Murrayfield.  There are still hundreds of tickets available for all the matches with prices starting at £71.50.