Rejuvenated Australia look to England test after Wales win
AUSTR ALIA’S rugby renaissance continued in Cardiff wit h a fourt h consecutive win i n a run of seven unbeaten, and head coach Michael Cheika was not ruling out another triumph against England t his Saturday.
The clash at Twickenham will see two Aussie coaches going head-tohead, but Cheika said any talk of rivalry between him and ex-clubmate Eddie Jones was “irrelevant”.
“It is Australia versus England, that’s all that counts. It is not about having any fun with Eddie. We will have fun on our own in our own camp and then we will prepare ourselves each day the best we can,” Cheika said in the wake of his side’s 29-21 victory, their 13th in a row against Wales.
“We understand that the pundits over here don’t think we have much of a chance, and they have already given England 3-0 for November.
“One guy said: ‘All respect to Australia, but a decent club side would beat them’. So I don’t think there is too much for them to worry about. We will prepare every day like we are going to play our best game on Saturday and go from there.”
Welsh Davies concerns
The Wallabies were forced to play near their very best by a revamped Welsh side missing the likes of Sam Warburton, Ross Moriarty, George North, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb.
Wales might a lso have to go into next weekend’s match against Georgia without t he ser v ices of British and Irish Lions centre Jonathan Davies.
He turned his left ankle in the final play of the game and had to be carried off the field on the motorised stretcher and will be assessed during the week.
His injur y came moments after replacement wing Hallam Amos had added a second home tr y to the one scored by Steff Evans in the first half.
“It looks like an ankle injury at the moment and he’s been strapped up and put on crutches. It doesn’t look brilliant, but we’ll know more in the next 24 hours,” Wales head coach Warren Gatland said.
“I’ll think we’ll make a lot of changes for next week. There will be some younger boys getting a chance.
“Some players who have been out of the squad a while will get an opportunity. It’s a chance for players to put themselves in contention for the All Blacks game.
“It’s about assessing where t his group is in the next 48 hours and seeing how they come back on Monday.”
When they do come back in they will have to reflect on a 13th successive defeat to the Wallabies, who are once again World Cup opponents in Japan in 2019, and be mindful of the fact the Georgians will arrive on the back of a 54-22 win over Canada in Tbilisi.
‘Grindathon’ frustrates Jones
“We’re disappointed in terms of the result, but we talked about throwing some new faces out there, some new caps. Some guys have had their first caps at home and they’ll be better for that experience,” Gatland said.
“That was Australia’s ninth game in the last few months. If you look at where they started the Rugby Championship, they were beaten by 50 points by the All Blacks.
“Our whole focus is on planning for the World Cup – exposing some young players and giving them opportunities, developing the game that we can play.
“We’ve got Australia in our group and we have the next two years together to prepare for it.
“We’ll go into that group with a lot of confidence.”
England launched their November campaign with an error-strewn 21-8 win over Argentina at Twickenham on Saturday.
England’s latest win over 2019 World Cup pool opponents saw No8 Nathan Hughes score his first Test try and replacement back Semesa Rokoduguni cross in the second half, with their other 11 points coming via George Ford’s boot.
Fly-half Ford was given k ick ing duties af ter Jones rested reg ular goalk icker Owen Farrell, as well as lock Maro Itoje, follow ing t heir ef for ts in helping t he British and Irish Lions to a 1-1 series draw in New Zealand.
Poor passes saw England squander several promising moves against Argentina and, at one stage, television cameras caught former Japan coach Jones angrily slamming a notebook on his desk.
“I don’t see there’s any reason why I shouldn’t be frustrated,” Jones said. “We want to play good rugby. It was a grindathon. Our fluency and our understanding wasn’t there.”
This was England’s fourth straight victory against Argentina.