All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is buying into the importance of winning the battle for fortress Twickenham.

Saturday’s Test against England will be the fourth time the teams have clashed this year.

Next year it will be once at the most. That Test can only happen in the semi-finals or final of the World Cup. At Twickenham.

Hansen says it has been hard to ignore media comments from the English camp about the importance of winning their home Tests this month to give them a mental edge ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“That’s what you read, they’re telling us they’ll make it a fortress,” Hansen said.

“They’re trying to build that mentality in themselves and through that, make us get that mentality that it’s a fortress.”

Hansen says it is important his players don’t have any uneasy feelings about Twickenham when they play up to three knockout Tests there next year.

Winning on Saturday will go a long way to ensuring that doesn’t happen, he says.

England captain Chris Robshaw says generating huge support at Twickenham has the potential to lift England to glory next year, a triumph which would see them join New Zealand, South Africa and Australia as two-time champions.

He is seeking a wave of nationalism, similar to the sentiment which swept through London during the 2012 Olympics.’

“You look at the passion that the Olympics brought to the country,” Robshaw told journalists.

“If we can do something like that with the crowd, really create that buzz around the whole place, that will inspire the players.”

Months after the Olympics, England thrashed New Zealand 38-21, lifted by an atmosphere Robshaw describes as the best he has played in.

It was similar during this year’s Six Nations when the English headed off rivals Wales and Scotland at Twickenham.

Those Tests were the first use of England’s new scheme to park their team bus further away from the ground, giving the players a longer walk through supportive fans.

Robshaw says the move gives players and supporters alike a boost not long out from kick-off.