We’ll go toe-to-toe with anyone – Launchbury

The Red Rose and the All Blacks meet four times in 2014, with three of those Tests coming on successive Saturdays in June in New Zealand.

If Saturday’s barnstormer of an international is anything to go by, it could be a series that pits the two best teams in the world together, with New Zealand sitting proudly at the top of the standings and England closing in fast.

And as they continue building to the 2015 World Cup on home soil, Wasps lock Launchbury feels it is the ultimate challenge for England.

“It’s exactly what we want as a squad a couple of years out from the World Cup, to go to the best team in the world and play them on their patch,” said England’s try-scorer on Saturday, and one of their stars of the autumn international series.

“I’ve never been there before, it will be a new experience for me and a new experience for a few of us, and it’s going to be a great challenge.

“We’ve proved over the last couple of games against New Zealand that we are here to not just make up the numbers, but have a really good go at them, which we will do.”

Unfortunately for England, and for Stuart Lancaster, who has tried but failed to get the dates changed, the first Test with New Zealand is scheduled for June 7, just a week after the Premiership final.

That means if the domestic showpiece is contested by Northampton and Saracens, England will be without half of their first-choice team for the opening Test, who will then fly out and get up to speed for the second game.

But before then, there is the sizeable challenge of the Six Nations, which gets underway for England in Paris on February 1.

Launchbury said: “We’re meeting back up in January and it’s key to keep the England hat on and keep thinking about England and how we can move this squad forward.

“And that’s the message; we’re a young squad and we’re not vastly experienced but what we do have is a collective heart and we’ll try and go toe-to-toe with whoever we play against. Largely we did that against New Zealand and we should be proud of that but we want to start reversing these results. Moving forward, confidence is high in the camp and we’ve won a few games.

“We didn’t get the result (on Saturday), but we’re moving in the right direction.”