Dubai: Members of England’s Six Nations winning side — who were one win away from beating New Zealand’s record of 18 consecutive victories and clinching a Six Nations Grand Slam before defeat to Ireland last month — aren’t worried that they won’t be playing the All Blacks this year.

Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood were speaking on the sidelines of a training session with the Dubai Hurricanes’ youth team at the Lapita Hotel in Dubai Parks and Resorts on Friday.

New Zealand’s 18-match winning run ended in November against Ireland, while England’s own run to overtake that tally was also stopped by the Shamrocks in March.

This seems the best time for the world’s top two sides to play each other but due to scheduling they can’t meet until at least November 2018. A game had been proposed for November later this year but will not materialise. Lawes said that didn’t matter.

“When we face New Zealand is pretty irrelevant,” he said. “Eventually we have to play them anyway and we don’t want to be a team that’s just good for a year or two, we want to be great forever and keep on getting better and building, eventually becoming the best in the world and retaining that title for years to come.”

Wood agreed: “It is a shame we don’t get to play them while on a roll, but we also see that there’s so much growth left in us that whenever we do play them, we’ll be that much better for it.”

Of Ireland wrecking their record bid, Wood said: “It was an incredible roll we were on and it had to end at some point. It almost became a burden hanging over us with everyone talking about it.

“With the record, Grand Slam and everything else aside, we wanted to win that game just to challenge ourselves against another top team, but we fell short on the day and it’s hard to know why. Sometimes you just have days like that.”

England now tour Argentina in the summer before Autumn internationals against Argentina, Australia and Samoa. And Woods said England players lost to the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in the summer will give coach Eddie Jones the chance to replenish.

“Hopefully a good chunk of our stars will be away on Lions duty and that will open the door to other people and we can get a look at some players we’ve perhaps been crying out for.”

Asked how Jones had turned things around, since taking over from Stuart Lancaster after an abysmal home World Cup in 2015, when England failed to get out of the group for the first time, Wood replied: “He backs his own ability, philosophy, doesn’t get pressured by the media, does what’s right for him and is good at getting the best out of his players. So there’s a real inner belief and self-confidence.

“Off the pitch he’s good fun, but on it he’s a hard task master. Whether you’ve got 50 caps or are there for the first day, if you make a mistake he’ll call it, make an example, and everyone learns from it.”