The national rugby union teams of England and New Zealand have been playing each other in Test match rugby since 1905, and have contested a total of 38 Test matches since. The first meeting between the two nations was on 2 December 1905, when the All Blacks were in England as part of their European and North America tour. The All Blacks won 15–0 with their points coming from five tries, of which four were scored by winger Duncan McGregor. Their next meeting was on the All Blacks' Invincibles tour of 1924–25. The match was most notable for the sending off of All Black lock Cyril Brownlie, who became the first player to ever be sent off in a Test match. In 1936 England defeated the All Blacks for the first time when England winger Prince Alexander Obolensky scored two tries during a 13–0 victory at Twickenham Stadium. The All Blacks have never lost more than two consecutive matches to England, and have dominated the rivalry between the teams. Of the 40 matches between them, New Zealand have won 32 and England 7, whilst one match was drawn.
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In 2008 the Hillary Shield was introduced as the trophy to be contested in matches between the two teams.
Records
Note: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.
History
A century of New Zealand dominance has been punctuated by infrequent England victories. The 17 point margin in 2012 eclipsed the 13-0 win in 1936. Out of the blue England visited NZ in 1973 and won the test match 16-10, their first win in New Zealand. Ten years later they pulled off the first home win in 48 years by 15-9 and repeated the feat ten years later by the same score. They won back to back victories in 2002 and 2003.
One of the 1997 matches resulted in a 26 all draw.
The rest of the matches have been won by New Zealand. The highest margin was 42 points in 1998 in Dunedin when England sent a depleted touring side to New Zealand.
The teams have met three times in World Cups, with New Zealand winning all three matches.
Hillary Shield
Since 2008, the winner of New Zealand – England Test matches have been awarded the Hillary Shield. The shield is only contested in non-World Cup matches, and is named in honour of Sir Edmund Hillary — the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. It was also conceived to recognise the links between New Zealand and England. When the shield was unveiled in 2008 by New Zealand's Prime Minister at the time, Helen Clark, and Hillary's widow, Lady June Hillary, Clark said of Hillary "He was part of a British expedition when he conquered Mt Everest shortly after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II".