England Rugby’s Alex Coles backs Red Rose to make an impression against New Zealand at Eden Park

Alex Coles is backing England to bounce back from their narrow defeat to New Zealand last weekend.

The former Shelford Rugby Club junior, who attended The Perse School, featured as a second-half replacement during the 16-15 loss in Dunedin.

The next meeting between the sides on Saturday (13 July) will be at Eden Park, which is a venue where the All Blacks have not tasted defeat in 49 Tests – a run that dates back to 1994.

Nevertheless, Cambridge-born Coles remains in confident mood.

He said: “It was such fine margins so it’s about how can we get five per cent more in our advantage so we get that extra bit of territory or don’t give a penalty away.

“It’s actually really small things, there is no quick fix. There wasn’t anything underlying really that let us down, but a few things here and there.

“As a whole our gameplan went well and has given us belief that we can be really successful and it’s just can we execute that a little bit better.

“We’re not shying away from the fact they have this record, but it’s not playing too much of a part in our preparation.

“As a team we’re not going to focus on that too much. We just have to go out there and do our gameplan a little bit better.”