History men!
England seal Test series in stunning style - now for the whitewash, says Jones
From a land of no hope to a land of glory. England confirmed their remarkable transformation from World Cup misfits to global contenders with a gutsy, backs-to-the-wall victory to record a first series win in Australia and leapfrog the Wallabies in the process to No 2 in the international rankings.
It was a triumph of English spirit and resilience, of guts and grit, for they spent most of the match defending as Australia came at them in wave after wave of gold shirts. But England somehow held firm to record a landmark victory. Played eight, won eight under Eddie Jones. The man and his team can do no wrong. How the tide has turned, how the mood has shifted, how fortunes have been revitalised. The wheel has spun and England are on the up.
There was a Herculean effort from Chris Robshaw, the fall-guy as skipper for the World Cup, who stood tall and proud throughout, giving his best per- formance in an England shirt, winning crucial turnovers at critical junctures. No one deserved this victory more than him. It was a redemptive moment.
But as he is by nature, so were Eng- land, wholehearted and selfless.
Robshaw does not look for plaudits, merely for the next man to tackle, the next bit of graft. He is a star without ego. And this was a fitting way for him to celebrate his 50th cap.
From here on in, all things are possible. England’s attack needs honing but they have a Rorke’s Drift defence – 169 tackles to 49 by Australia, a ledger of valour. Their lung-rasping efforts were on a par with that put in by 13-man England when defeating the All Blacks in Wellington in 2003. Five months later, England, who went from New Zealand to beating Australia in Melbourne, were crowned world champions.
But it is premature to consider such notions yet. The All Blacks are a class apart and England are far from the finished article, as a surprisingly suspect line-out showed. But this tour will be with them for ever, inscribed “on the Twickenham walls”, as Eddie Jones put it. The coach wanted to know whether this team would “grow or shrink”.
There was no need to convene a jury to rule on that one. All of them, in their sweat-soaked, blood-stained jerseys came off the field with stature enhanced, different people in all probability, never mind players, from those who had trotted on at the start.
Robshaw aside, there were other notable individual contributions. Owen Farrell, who erupted with joy on scoring the 75th-minute try that sealed the deal, added a conversion and a late penalty to take his match tally to 18 points, added to his 24 in the first Test. Inside him stood his schoolboy pal George Ford, a titch among giants, but the tape measure tells nothing about a man’s heart and soul. The Wallaby big runners smashed into Ford, time and again, and the diminutive fly-half never wilted, never shirked.
James Haskell was utterly defiant, Maro Itoje was all-consuming, Billy Vunipola likewise, despite a brain-fade that saw the No8 gift Australia possession when he prematurely kicked the ball dead, thinking he had heard the half-time hooter when there were still three seconds left. Australia made full use of that as, for more than three minutes, they bore down on England in a remorseless attempt to level the score at the break.
But the white line held. It was a pivotal sequence – 22 phases in all. They shall not pass – the refrain was writ large on English faces.
Australia were culpable in their own downfall and made too many errors, even on this greasy surface. They were naive in their use of territory and oneeyed in the paucity of variety in their play. Yet they won on every count bar the one that mattered – the scoreboard. More yards, more possession, more territory, more breaks, more passes, yet they could not breach the white wall except for a line-out maul try scored by captain, Stephen Moore on 34 minutes.
There is always an element of fortune in these matters and England got away with warnings rather than yellow cards. They trod that fine line and rode their luck. Haskell was spoken to, as was Itoje.
The first Test had been feisty: this was explosive, with a 30-man brawl on 10 minutes, triggered by a neck-roll tackle by Robshaw on Wallaby scrumhalf Nick Phipps. Players from both sides piled in, Dan Cole’s shirt was ripped from his back. The upshot was a penalty against England for the initial offence, which was then reversed for the Wallabies’ retaliation.
The tension did not fade and there was no respite to the niggle; Itoje was unceremoniously shoved by prop Sekope Kepu at one point, and players went down the tunnel at half-time, arguing and jostling.
But the players were not the only ones cutting up rough. Concern about the AAMI Stadium pitch were soon seen to be well-founded. The first scrum had to be re-set twice and left a churned-up mess. The surface was a blight on the game with referee Craig Joubert asking the teams to help him keep the scrums upright. It was a desperate state of affairs and the Australian union should be held to account.
The one area where England looked to have an advantage was in the sheer poundage of their pack. And it told. England won a penalty down the right flank in the 19th minute and opted for a line-out. Itoje rose, his mates wrapped around him, Farrell came thundering in and over they went with Dylan Hartley at the rear to touch down, a suitable memento on the day he became England’s most-capped hooker with 74.
Australia continued to look dangerous. It was tense, unremitting stuff.
Time and again Australia pressed, time and again England resisted, with one Itoje tackle on Toby Smith on the hour mark saving the day.
But Jones’s team got their reward five minutes from time when their pressure forced a mistake, and they counter-attacked. Courtney Lawes took it on, Jamie George came up in support and dabbed the ball through from where Farrell, following up, poked it over the try-line to score. He converted before adding his late penalty.
The celebrations began. As well they might. English rugby is back in business.