Flankers supreme prepare for battle

Eddie Jones believes that the “battle at the breakdown” will have an enormous impact on the outcome of tomorrow’s quarter-final, with particular emphasis on the tussle between the two sets of flankers.

Australia have long sought to get David Pocock and Michael Hooper on the field at the same time, even though they are both essentially opensides, and England have copied that set-up with Tom Curry and Sam Underhill in a desire to deploy their best assets in securing the ball at the breakdown.

“Over the past 10 years Pocock has been the foremost No7 in the world, while Hooper is a massively important player,” Jones said. “He is a link player who takes the ball forward a lot once Australia get inside the opposition’s 22. He is a key leader, but our two young boys are just getting better every game.

“Curry has improved his line-out jumping immensely and Underhill is the most combative seven I’ve seen for a long time. It’s just going to be a battle at the breakdown, which is the most topical part of the game – 80 per cent of penalties are given at the breakdown.

“Referees or World Rugby have decided to referee in a certain way that allows more contest, so we needed to get more contest in our back row. So it’s a pretty simple equation [to pair Curry and Underhill].”

To judge by the manner in which Jones has dubbed the pair “the kamikaze kids”, he believes that their innate aggression and pace to the ball will bring great yield for England at such a key phase. The players themselves are relishing the opportunity to go head-to-head with the “pooper” duo, as they have been nicknamed. “You want to challenge yourself against the best in the world,” Underhill said.