‘Three-nil sounds a lot better than 2-1’

ENGLAND are desperate to end their successful trip Down Under with a third win in Sydney today to secure an unprecedented series sweep over Australia, scrum coach Neal Hatley said yesterday.

Having made history with a first win in Brisbane two weeks ago, and secured a first-ever series triumph in Melbourne last week, the tourists are determined not to let their collective foot off the gas at the Sydney Football Stadium.

“We just want to win 3-0, we’ve trained exceptionally hard as I’m sure the Aussies have,” Hatley said.

“That’s what we set our stall out to do, we want to be ruthlessly competitive ... to go home 2- 1 might seem like a good thing for some people, for us we’ve set our stall out.

“We want to be ruthless at every single opportunity we get, so to go home 3-0 sounds a whole lot better than 2-1.”

England’s victories in Australia have helped move them above the Wallabies into second in the world rankings behind the dominant All Blacks.

Head coach Eddie Jones said before England arrived in Australia that they wanted a 3-0 win and has warned his players against the dangers of complacency in the run-up to today’s match.

“When you’ve had a couple of wins, praise can make you weak,” Jones said on Thursday.

“We’ve got to be very careful that all the praise we’re getting doesn’t make us weak.

“If you become weak once, you can become weak twice and to be a champion team you can’t be like that.

“Outside praise is dangerous for a team and they’ve been getting a lot of it. We’ve just got to be careful.

“If they allow themselves to become weak through praise, or allow themselves to think what people are saying is true, they won’t be in the team.”

Meanwhile, in-form flank James Haskell has been ruled out of the match due to a foot injury with New Zealand-born Teimana Harrison replacing him in the only change to Jones’ starting XV from the second Test. – Reuters Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Dane HaylettPetty, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Will Skelton, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 James Slipper. Bench: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Greg Holmes, 19 Adam Coleman, 20 Wycliff Palu, 21 Nick Frisby, 22 Christian Lealiifano, 23 Taqele Naiyaravoro. England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jack Nowell, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Teimana Harrison, 6 Chris Robshaw, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Mako Vunipola. Bench: 16 Jamie George, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Courtney Lawes, 21 Jack Clifford, 22 Danny Care, 23 Elliot Daly.