Balshaw has played just three matches this season

Sunday, 5 November
Twickenham
Kick-off: 1530 GMT
Live on BBC1, BBC Radio Five Live and the BBC Sport website

England full-back Iain Balshaw is surprised by his call-up to face New Zealand at Twickenham on Sunday.

Injury-hit Balshaw has hardly played for Gloucester this season and was shocked when Andy Robinson picked him.

"I'm surprised to be selected having only played three games this season as I probably could have done with a few more games," he told BBC Sport.

"But I've been given the opportunity of playing against the All Blacks and I was never going to turn that down."

Interview: Iain Balshaw

England go into the match on a horror run of five straight defeats, but Balshaw believes this can come to an end despite New Zealand being the opposition.

"The players are disappointed that we've lost those games, but there's nothing we can do about that now," he said.

"We've got to concentrate on this weekend and we have some in-form players playing really well for their clubs.

"The last two days have been fantastic with the boys concentrating on our game so of course we want to stop the rot, and there's no better way than to do than at Twickenham.

Brian Ashton's got a few tricks up his sleeve Iain Balshaw

"It's an exciting period as there are a lot of players pushing for positions. It's a very positive time for England even though we are getting a lot of pressure from outside."

The influence of new attack coach Brian Ashton has given Andy Robinson's revamped squad renewed vigour.

"Ashton's got a few tricks up his sleeve and a lot of players have their own input now," he said.

"We are just excited by the way we are going to play.

"It's going to be tough playing against the All Blacks, South Africa and Argentina, but we believe we have the personnel and firepower to do well.

"It's very important to get our game right."

New Zealand are the most feared team in world rugby, but Balshaw feels that if teams let that play on their minds they are beaten before they even step on to the pitch.

"A lot of teams see the All Blacks shirt and are fazed by it straight away, and sometimes by doing that you are already going to lose," he said.