Jones: We blew our chances
We didn’t adapt well enough and came out second best.”
England more than paid the price for letting Australia off the hook. Centre Joe Marchant could have scored in the first half, but was tackled by Marika Koroibete, and the Wallabies wriggled out of trouble.
Jones added: “We had opportunities to put pressure on them and we just let them off at various stages. There were a couple of times when we were on their line. There were opportunities to score but we didn’t score and conversely, when they had opportunities to score they scored straight away.
“I think you’re always annoyed when you lose. That would be an understatement but I can’t question the commitment or the effort of the players. It’s just sometimes when you’ve got a team who are not quite tight enough in certain areas of the game and we just let them out on certain occasions. We led 14-9 and in the first half we probably should have been ahead by a number of points and we weren’t. And those sorts of things they come back to bite you.”
Arundell’s try, on his debut, when he beat four defenders, was one bright spot for England and he could start in Brisbane next week after reminding Jones of one of his old Randwick pals who turned into a Wallaby legend.
Jones added: “David Campese, he did something like that in his first Test. I am loathe to compare him to Campese but if he keeps working hard in Test rugby he is going to be some sort of a player.”
For Australia this win brought to an end Jones’ hold over them after eight straight wins but boss Dave Rennie said he would be looking at the tape of Swain’s red and Hill’s wind-up tactics.
He said: “If it’s a headbutt it’s clearly a red card. I’m not sure his attempt is to head-butt him, but we’ll look at the footage and see whether there’s an opportunity to challenge.
“I’m not sure if it was a team plan, but there was certainly provocation there. Not just in that situation but also earlier in the game. We’ll have a decent look at the footage and work out how we’re going to appeal that.”