KEY POINTS:
England's latest five-eighths Toby Flood spent much of his early years at Newcastle absorbing the views of his rugby director and former longtime national pivot Rob Andrew.
Both have now moved on to higher responsibility with England, Andrew as the union's Elite Rugby director with temporary coaching responsibility on this tour and Flood switches to the No 10 jersey for tonight's critical return test with the All Blacks.
Flood is still only 22 and at Newcastle has played guitar as part of a band including Jonny Wilkinson and former All Black prop Carl Hayman.
Tonight though he has to be a major player for England, pushed into the first five-eighths role after missing the first test and watching England shredded in their backline.
He is a lanky 1.88m and 92kgs, a promising talent whose confidence will be needed as England look to redress the defensive and backline problems of Eden Park.
"It is something that is a big challenge, switching to flyhalf, any time you go in there is a big responsibility," Flood said ahead of the Christchurch international.
"I guess most of my career has been at flyhalf so hopefully I can slot back in there and deal with the pressures which come with it.
"The way we played at England at Six Nations and at home with Newcastle 10 and 12 were kind of the same thing so I have hopefully not got too many issues with it."
Flood acknowledged that England came unstuck in the inside channels at Eden Park against the All Blacks where Charlie Hodgson and Ollie Barkley were exposed.
Both have been bladed while there are other rearrangements which mean just Mike Tindall and Topsy Olo remain from the Auckland test.
"Of course there were issues with plenty of areas like counterattack, the way we defended, there were parts of our game that we had to look at as a whole unit and improve," he said.
"The guys were hugely disappointed with the loss and we have to try and make amends."
Flood was devastated not to make the 22 for the Eden Park test as he rated a rugby tour of New Zealand as the pinnacle of sporting experiences.
But he kept his head, respected the selectors' decision, vowed to support the team and work even harder in training. He knew his late season form at Newcastle had slipped and he hoped for a late chance.
That reward has come with his selection at five-eighths for Christchurch as England look for a rare away win against an All Black side to balance the ledger.
The key would be using wisely any ball the useful England pack muster tonight in Christchurch. England were relying on their pack to make advances and Flood said it was up to him and his cohorts to make further progress.
Quizzed on his defensive capabilities, Flood said he did not mind what people thought of his ability.
"I just try and work as hard as I can, calling guys around me, making plays, getting on with my job. People can have whatever opinion they want of me, it doesn't matter to me as long as I am fulfilling my duties to the guys on the pitch, doing the organisation, making my tackles," he said.
England had worked hard this week to sort out their defence, making sure they had enough line speed to cut down the All Black momentum, making sure defenders were not isolated.
At Newcastle they tended to play a big kicking game based around Wilkinson but tonight there would have to be greater variety, England would need an array of attacking ideas to ask much greater questions of the All Blacks.
