England and New Zealand could meet in a mouth-watering November Twickenham clash
Wednesday 15 March 2017 12:50, UK
England and New Zealand could meet in 2017 if the Rugby Football Union (RFU) is successful with plans to re-arrange its fixture list.
Sky Sports News HQ understands the leading sides in the northern and southern hemispheres could meet at Twickenham on November 4.
The All Blacks were due to host the Barbarians - also at Twickenham - on that date as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations, although details of that fixture are yet to be finalised.
England's autumn international campaign is due to start seven days later, on November 11, with a clash against Argentina, which will be followed by matches against Australia and Samoa.
However, RFU chief Ian Ritchie is exploring avenues to schedule what would be one of the most mouth-watering games in international rugby - the teams have not met since 2014 when New Zealand made it five successive wins over England with a 24-21 win at Twickenham.
An RFU spokesman told Sky Sports News HQ: "We are scheduled to play New Zealand in 2018 but if an opportunity came up to play them before then we would pursue it."
Eddie Jones' team will surpass the All Blacks' world record of 18 successive Test victories if they beat Ireland on Saturday - the Irish brought an end to New Zealand's winning run in Chicago last November.
Negotiations centre on the way revenues will be shared between the RFU and their New Zealand counterparts, as well as the RFU's need to compensate domestic clubs as the game would fall outside the designated international window.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said on Tuesday: "I don't care when we play, but we're not scheduled to play them, so if we are going to play them we're going to have to find a way to do that, and give us half their stadium (receipts) or something. That would be good."
