The visit of New Zealand to south-west London is always special regardless of changes to stadium names or rules
or those who, for some strange reason, only watch international rugby much has changed since England last took the field in mid-July. Technically speaking, for starters, the home team no longer play at a ground called Twickenham and will instead run out at somewhere called Allianz Stadium. The era of the “Ally Pally” has arrived, which may or may not impress the old-school clientele in the posher parts of the West Car Park.
Unsurprisingly this has not thrilled the player welfare lobby and risks confusing casual fans even more. How much easier it would be to show an orange card for such offences; for now, the sanction of a 20-minute red will have to go through the usual TMO protocols before the precise outcome can be clarified. Add in shot clocks for scrums, lineouts and kicks at goal and there is a serious amount of pedantry in store.
Partly, of course, it is about the heritage that the RFU, cash-strapped or otherwise, tinkers with at its peril. New Zealand have been coming to this corner of south-west London for almost exactly 100 years and, overall, have lost just eight of their 45 Tests against England. It is, accordingly, still a sizeable deal when they hit town in a way it might not be at some neutral venue in the Gulf.
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