Eddie Jones is impatient for New Zealand's visit to Twickenham after declaring England ready to prove themselves against the benchmark in world sport.
A rousing 12-11 victory over a South Africa team close to full strength launched the autumn series in enthralling fashion to raise expectations for the long-awaited showdown with Steve Hansen's All Blacks on Saturday.
It is four years since the rivals last met due to a quirk of the fixture list and Jones insists injury-depleted England know they can engineer an upset that would land a psychological blow ahead of next year's World Cup.
"I said to the boys after South Africa that I can't wait. I cannot wait," the head coach said.
"They are the benchmark for world rugby, the team you want to play against. Where are you in the world? You only know when you play against the All Blacks.
"Any team that wins 91 per cent of their games is a great team. What other teams in world sport do that?
"You've got to believe you can beat them. You've got to understand where they're weak, understand where they're strong and be disciplined in your game plan. We will be well prepared for them."
England staggered through the first half of the year, a dreadful Six Nations followed by a 2-1 series defeat in South Africa as five losses were incurred from six Tests.
But by toppling the Springboks against the odds despite missing key players such as the Vunipola brothers, Chris Robshaw and Joe Launchbury, they have created the conviction that 2018 can end strongly.
"I didn't need this to make me believe we can beat the All Blacks - I thought we could beat the All Blacks back in 2016. Nothing has changed there," Jones said.
"But the win just makes everyone feel a bit better. If you lose a game like that, it's harder to pick the players up. Now we won't have to pick them up.
"The belief you get from winning those tight games is enormous. That's the big thing for us."
Owen Farrell, the indomitable driving force behind England's refusal to crumble in the face of South Africa's onslaught, dismissed the All Blacks aura of invincibility.
"Anyone can be beaten. I don't think any team is unbeatable. They got beat not so long ago, didn't they?" Farrell said.
Ben Te'o, who faced New Zealand for the British and Irish Lions in 2017, is relishing the prospect of Saturday's second Quilter International after making his comeback from thigh and calf injuries.
"They're the number one team in the world and have been there for a long time. They've won successive World Cups. So we'll see where we're at," Te'o said.
"New Zealand are an all-round team. They have skill, size and power and they always turn up and play with passion.
"It's been a difficult few months, but this was a great win. It's built morale because the last few minutes were outstanding."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here