England vs New Zealand – Courtney Lawes tells All Blacks: ‘If you don’t know who we are, you will tomorrow’

Brodie Retallick infamously claimed he did not know a single England player before referring to Lawes by the wrong name, with the lock putting the All Blacks on notice that they plan on ending their world domination

On the eve of England’s biggest Rugby World Cup match in over a decade, Courtney Lawes vowed that they are ready to put the world on notice by ending New Zealand’s eight-year reign of dominance in Saturday’s semi-final.

England play the All Blacks in a knockout World Cup match for the first time in 24 years on Saturday with a place in next weekend’s final on the line, with Lawes starting in the second-row for what is undoubtedly the biggest game of his career.

Lawes was on the 2014 summer tour of New Zealand when Brodie Retallick memorably claimed he didn’t know a single name within the England squad, before mistakenly calling his opposite man “Michael Laws” after confusing him with the Kiwi politician and former Mayor of Whanganui. Retallick bristled towards a British journalist this week when he was reminded of his dubious claim, but Lawes smiled upon being prompted on the press conference moment five years ago and believes that the chance to silence the All Blacks once and for all comes this Saturday in Yokohama.

"If they don't know, then they will tomorrow,” vowed Lawes. “It's just one of those things mate! We will just get on with it.

"We're excited. None of us have played in a semi-final before, it's a challenge but we're very excited to get out there.”

Lawes was on the bench when England last beat the All Blacks seven years ago and again last November when they slipped to a late 16-15 defeat, but this time around Eddie Jones has elected to start the Northampton Saints lock and hope that the introduction of George Kruis later in the contest helps maintain his side’s lineout stability, which let them down last autumn.

"It was a tough test, a close one,” Lawes recalled. “But we took great confidence from it, confidence that we're certainly going to take into the game tomorrow."

New Zealand boss Steve Hansen is set to try and exploit that once more, with an additional lock named in blindside flanker in the form of Scott Barrett to give them five jumping options in the set-piece.

"They have gone with a pretty big pack. That's fine with us. We are used to that,” said Lawes. “In terms of the line-out (Barrett) is a good jumper. He's normally a second-row forward. But I think we have addressed that and have the callers and jumpers to deal with it.

"They have a great pack and have a lot of great players across the board - but so do we. We have two of the best packs in the world going up against each other."

England have spent the week preparing at the Disneyland Tokyo resort but will travel 30 miles to Yokohama on Saturday afternoon by bus, when the roads are due to have cleared despite the barrage of rain brought by the 20th typhoon of Pacific season.

Retallick bristled this week when reminded of his 2014 comments (Getty)

But even without the theme park around them, the squad have been able to bond on this two-month journey in Japan like never before, and full-back Elliot Daly believes it is a positive factor in their attempt to take down the reigning world champions.

"We talk about togetherness all the time and I haven’t felt this together as a team in any team I have played in,” Daly said. "We are having fun on and off the pitch, and hopefully that shows in the games, and it is the most together we have been.

"Everyone is different how they go about preparing for big games. Last weekend we built nicely towards the game and individually we got ready and it wasn’t a team thing because we were all right at game time.

"Everyone in the team knows what they have to do to get to that level and we don't want to let anyone down. We want to be ready come what may at game time."