Alex Goode relishes chance of home debut for England at Twickenham mano-a-mano, loosehead against tighthead, line-out jumper against line-out jumper, the physical proximity making the contest more intimate, the outcome more discernible. How does he shape that as a full-back whose natural habitat is space, wilderness? I'm trying to anticipate what the opposition nine and 10 want to do and make it difficult for them, so when they look up in order to kick the ball I'm constantly in their eye line. They're constantly seeing me in the way and are forced to run themselves into more trouble, to the point where they've got slow ball and they're going nowhere, to the point where we are ready defensively and the game is on our terms. The closest thing to a personal battle is me against their 10, and it keeps me focused. I do enjoy that side of it. I get annoyed if the 10 outfoxes me. I'd like to think that doesn't happen too often. It used to. When Goode first arrived at Saracens and was switched from outside-half to full-back, he was frustrated in training by Glen Jackson, then the Saracens outside-half, who delighted in pushing low, torpedo kicks into spaces just out of Goode's reach. "No matter how quickly I scurried across he was able to disadvantage me," Goode said. Bizarrely, Jackson will be in Goode's thoughts this Saturday, refereeing his first Test having retired as a player following the Premiership final against Leicester in 2010. And Goode's reaction to being discombobulated by Jackson? Practise, practise, then practise some more. If I had been picked under the Martin Johnson regime I wouldn't have been ready for Test rugby because I hadn't put the preparation in. I'm talking three years ago now. In South Africa I'd had 100 games for Saracens, been a leader at the club and the whole experience sat well with me. I felt I deserved to be there. It wasn't on the back of one season. If that sounds arrogant in print, it didn't in the flesh. Goode is very wary of that accusation. "If someone said I was arrogant, I'd be quite upset," he said. My mum would definitely be on the phone calling me Alexander if she heard that. I knew I was in trouble then. That's the one thing she always says to me: 'You can do what you want, but don't be arrogant." " A snapshot of his upbringing suggests that Goode is grounded. His arrogance-hating mum runs a charity, Brick by Brick, an organisation which builds schools in rural Malawi, and he attributes his competitiveness to growing up with an elder brother. He was three years ahead of me and I was always trying to keep up with him. I used to play football with him and his mates and try to be better than I was. A naturally gifted sportsman, Goode also has a memory, aged 10 or 12, of a tennis match when he came up against a pushy father. My opponent was my age but home-schooled so that he could play tennis every day, and his dad was in my face calling shots out which were very obviously in. I remember thinking this was his life and everything to him but for me it was just a sport. It didn't feel right. When I suggest that, years later, he is now facing an even more elemental challenge than his young opponent, an athlete anticipating a series of Twickenham contests which will consume his energies and focus a country, he is gracious enough to acknowledge the point. But Goode is aware of the bigger picture. He talks with feeling about the depression which hits some sportsmen when the adrenalin rush peters out and "they go into coaching, not because they want to, but just to stay in the game." To that end he has sought work experience with several businesses and corporations "to get an idea of what I want to do when the rugby is over." For now, though, the future is black. All Black. This is the big test. We've had our honeymoon period. We've had the Six Nations where no one expected anything and the guys put in some fantastic performances. Then we went to South Africa, a tough place to go. We didn't get the win we wanted but the performances grew. This autumn a lot of us want to see how we stack up. We know the All Blacks are the No 1 team in the world, but they're coming to the end of their season. They're going to be tired. If we build momentum going into that game anything can happen. We believe on our day we can beat the All Blacks. They're not on a different planet. We'll put pressure on them and see how they'll cope. Spoken like a two-cap veteran.