Whare hoping for exiles to back Kiwis in numbers

New Zealand centre Dean Whare is hoping to see plenty of Kiwi fans at the Olympic Stadium this weekend for the second Test Match with England.

The English drew first blood with a 14-point win in Hull on Sunday. Now the series moves to east London this Saturday.

More than 20,000 New Zealanders live in the capital, and with the All Blacks claiming victory in London last weekend in rugby union’s World Cup final, Whare is hoping more of his fellow countrymen turn out in force for the second test.

“Definitely coming off the All Blacks being there last week,” he said.

“Hopefully some of those fans will come out and watch too.

“I had an awesome experience last time playing England [at Wembley] in that semi-final.

“It brings back great memories and hopefully we can do the same thing we did that night.”

Whare believes New Zealand will be better prepared second time round after experiencing England’s style of play at the KC Stadium.

“We started really well in the first half and didn’t do as well in the second half,” he said.

“It was good to get a first hit out and knowing what England do now.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and do better next time.”

Whare said the Kiwis will need to take advantage of having one referee and look to slow England down in the ruck.

“I think it was a lot different, getting used to the one ref,” the 25-year old said.

“Learning we can slow the play-the-ball where as in the NRL it’s really fast with two refs talking to you.

“That’s something we learned today and we should have nullified in the second half but we couldn’t do that.

“Their play-the-ball speed was way too fast for us and they were rolling through the middle.

“We need to slow them down. We got our heads through the gaps but couldn’t get any quick play-the-balls.
“England had great wrestle and they were slowing us down really well.”