LET’S HIT THEM FOR SIX
Jones calls on pack to batter Wallabies
BODYLINE is back. Eddie Jones used cricket’s most infamous Ashes series to inspire England’s whitewash of the Wallabies two years ago — and the same aggressive principles will apply at Twickenham today.
England set out to smash Australia, for a sixth straight victory over their head coach’s home country, as a means of wrapping up a successful autumn campaign.
Just as Don Bradman and Co were roughed up and beaten in 1932-33, that is what England expect to do by imposing their formidable physicality today. Jones has amassed a staggering array of firepower and he can’t wait to inflict an onslaught on the wobbly Wallabies.
Michael Cheika’s side are having a disastrous year and the last thing they need is to be confronted by so much English might — even if a lot of it is imported.
There’s Kiwi Ben Te’o at inside centre, Bath’s Fiji-born giant Joe Cokanasiga on the wing, another mighty Fijian on the bench — Wasps No8 Nathan Hughes — and finally, happily, there’s Manu Tuilagi, the Anglo-Samoan Leicester centre primed for a long-awaited Test comeback.
Armed with that ball-carrying clout, enhanced by the presence of Kyle Sinckler, a rampaging bull of a prop, and Sam Underhill, the sledgehammer tackler, England are ready to crush their opponents in a quest to finish this Quilter series with three wins from four games. Jones is optimistic that his pack can set the tone.
‘We’d like to dominate them,’ he said. ‘It’s an important psychological area of the game, the set-piece. We get confidence from dominating that area. And we take confidence away from Australia.’
They have taken plenty of confidence away from Australia in the past two years. Under this regime, England have faced down this enemy five times in succession, winning the 2016 series Down Under 3-0 and following up that landmark feat by claiming one-off wins at Twickenham in the last two autumn campaigns.
Today, they are trying to reach uncharted territory. Never before have there been six consecutive English Test victories over these foes. If this afternoon’s encounter is close, recent results between the teams will surely affect the outlook of the two sets of players in very different ways, even if England captain Owen Farrell played down the notion his side have a mental hold on Cheika’s men.
‘I don’t know the psychology,’ said the fly-half. ‘It varies from player to player. Regardless of how many times we have played them, we have to be able to perform when the game gets tough.’
England don’t want to betray any complacency by implying they have a foot on the throats of the visitors. But they do. Australia do not appear to have sufficient momentum or belief — not to mention depth of Test personnel — to prevent record-breaking by the hosts at their expense.
Yet, as someone who has been on the other side of the fence, Jones will brace his team for trouble. The former coach of Australia knows what it means to them to play in this fixture, at this venue, and have a shot at the English.
‘This is going to be their best performance of the year,’ he said. ‘This is the game they want to win against the old foe — the Mother Country. It’s at Twickenham, it’s their last game of the year, it’s Will Genia’s 100th Test, too. They’ll be up for it. So all previous form goes out the window.
‘These rivalries mean something. History dictates Australia-England is a special match. They’ll see this as a chance to put everything right. They can go to the beach as kings of the southern hemisphere.’
Australia will be off to the beach all right, but not as kings of anything. This match is a face-saving exercise. Victory over Italy did little to paper over so many cracks. Cheika is under fire at home for his selections, for his tactics and for so many poor results.
If Rugby Australia weren’t so broke, they may have opted for regime change already. Instead, they must remain on this path to next year’s World Cup.
Twelve months ago, England needed a last-quarter surge to beat Australia with room to spare, but what they’ll want today is a longer period of productivity.
They have to find the best way to use all their firepower. And they must be adaptable — altering their approach out on the pitch, not in the changing room at half-time.
But England are favourites and rightly so. Jones’s bouncers can bring Bodyline home and batter Australia into submission. Again.