4 Nations

I've heard this trotted out so many times and it never comes true. People continually underestimate the huge gulf between the top three teams and the rest of the world. 1990 was the last time a Great Britain or England team lost a Test to someone other than Australia or New Zealand.

 

They're stiffer competion at home but have never really travelled down here to well.

 

Taylor and quite a few others pretty much wrote off the Poms before the World Cup last year because they lost a warm-up to Italy, I think it was. Yet they still got to within one Sinfield missed tackle/Johnson side-step in the dying seconds, of making the final.

It has a lot to do with location, I think. England were the better side in that semi and would've put up a much better show in the final in front of 70,000 of their own fans than the Kiwis did. Fair play to NZ, they did play better than I thought they would based on their previous 6 or 7 visits.

Down here though, England have the same problem. They're terrible away from home. That said, they won't lose to Samoa.

 

In terms of actual quality of personnel. I think NZ has the advantage over England. It's not a huge one though. I mean I think the difference in quality between Australia and the Kiwis is bigger, for example.