Saracens stars Owen Farrell and George Kruis are ready to face the might of world champions New Zealand in a mouthwatering pre-2019 World Cup showdown at Twickenham on Saturday, writes Ziad Chaudry.

Ham & High: England's George Kruis in action during the Autumn International match at Twickenham Stadium (pic Adam Davy/PA)England's George Kruis in action during the Autumn International match at Twickenham Stadium (pic Adam Davy/PA) (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Eddie Jones’ England also featured Sarries duo Maro Itoje and Jamie George in a tight and dramatic 12-11 success over South Africa last Saturday in their opening Quilter Autumn Internationals programme, in which Farrell scored three of England’s four penalties.

“The main thing was how tough we were in staying in the game and sticking in it in that first half,” said England co-captain Farrell who struck a match-winning 73rd-minute penalty but and was involved in a highly controversial late tackle on Springbok André Esterhuizen.

“In the second half we all thought we had our chances which we did,” he added.

Sarries centre Farrell fully knows the All Blacks will offer a much sterner test when he returns to rugby HQ this Saturday.

“It’s going to be a big test,” he said. “The best and number one team in the world are coming but we got to make sure we enjoy this one firstly and make sure we learn, grow and get our detail better.

“We felt that we still left a couple out there but we’ll fix stuff like that up. We’ve not spent too much time together recently so it will be good to get another week under our belt then we’ll really get excited for a massive challenge.

“This one is a massive massive game. You pour all your energy into this and after enjoying this we pour all our energy into next week.”

Kruis admits his team-mates must improve their performance in a bid to overcome the star-studded New Zealanders.

“We have to play a lot better definitely, but we’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. We’ll be fully charged,” said Kruis.

Tickets for Saturday’s game, and England’s other Autumn Internationals against next year’s World Cup hosts Japan (November 17) and Australia (November 24) are available online at eticketing.co.uk/rfu/Events/Index, with the matches live on SKy Sports from 2pm.