Giant faces axe after Red Rose rescue

JOE COKANASIGA was an instant hit in helping to spare England’s blushes against Japan with a try on his debut.

But the giant wing’s late flourish may not be enough to keep his place against Australia on Saturday.

Cokanasiga’s introduction was the one success story from a game when Eddie Jones’s other experiments all blew up in his face.

Yet the England coach appears reluctant to persevere with the 21-year-old.

The cavalry is poised to return against the Wallabies after the difficulties in overcoming Japan.

With Jonny May among them, Cokanasiga could lose out despite the likely absence of Chris Ashton with a calf strain. “He’s probably done enough to get on the bus. Whether he gets off in the first 23 I’m not sure,” said Jones.

“This was an important experiment in making sure that we have our best players fully fit for next week.”

Against Japan, Jones wanted to examine his options but Ashton’s exit and the subsequent backline reshuffle meant

Jack Nowell had only an inconclusive half hour as a No.13, and the plan to try Henry Slade at full-back off the bench had to be scrubbed.

What Jones will now know is that, at 21, Zach Mercer is not yet an international No.8 and Mark Wilson, despite scoring his first England try in the second-half turnaround, will never be a Test No.7.

As for Alex Lozowski, he may never be seen in an England shirt again after being hauled off at half-time to allow for the emergency introduction of Owen Farrell.

Farrell was a spark and a beacon of calm when he arrived.

“He is obviously a world-class player so if you put him on he is going to make a difference,” said scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth, who was a big improvement on the man he replaced, Danny Care. “When you are lacking that touch of energy and physicality, those are two things that Owen comes with in abundance.

“He has an infectious personality in terms of his physicality and his drive and his enthusiasm for everyone else to go do that as well.”

England went into the break 1510 down having been dominated by next year’s World Cup hosts.

Second-row Wimpie van der Walt revealed it was their former coach’s pre-match threat to smash them which had fired them up.

“Eddie said they wanted to physically dominate us,” he said. “That was some motivation for us. We did pretty well to stop them. That maybe rattled them a little bit.”

England won the second half

25-0 but the ovation Japan, and their outstanding captain Michael Leitch, received at the end was well deserved.