England ride luck to score record win
Jones delighted with way side adapt to conditions Wallabies coach Cheika clashes with spectators
England posted a record 30-6 margin of victory over Australia in a match of high drama at Twickenham, with three disputed tries and two Wallaby yellow cards.
It was England’s fifth successive win over Australia, matching the record set by Clive Woodward’s side of 14 years ago, a winning sequence that climaxed with the lifting of the World Cup in 2003. Australia head coach Michael Cheika became embroiled in a heated exchange of words with spectators as he made his way down the steps before half-time as he tried to make adjustments following his team’s second sinbinning. The Wallaby coach was also caught on camera mouthing “f-----cheats” after one incident.
A dank November afternoon was illuminated by the vividness of the play and the constant sense of theatre that surrounded it, England pulling clear in a stunning end salvo that saw them score three tries in the final eight minutes. They had the rub of the green with a bounce of the ball skirting the touchline, enabling Elliot Daly to race in for a try that was given by the Television Match Official, Simon McDowell, who rejected two Wallaby tries, the first by Michael Hooper in the 27th minute, the other by barnstorming wing, Marika Koroibete, 10 minutes from full-time and just before England hit the Wallabies with their late flurry of scores. Owen Farrell intervened to make sure referee, Ben O’Keeffe, checked for obstruction.
Cheika was visibly annoyed by several decisions but made no apology for his emotions nor his barracking of officials. Nor, though, did he take exception to the abuse that came his way from England supporters.
“Is this what rugby has come to that we’re just looking for all of that? Is that really what it is?” said Cheika. “You are obviously steaming, but then you control yourself on the way down. It’s totally normal to get angry, you just have to clear your head straightaway and make the positional changes required to try to cut off the possible attacks. There are plenty of fans giving me a gobful. And not nice, not pleasant.
“I know when I walk down the stairs that I’m going to cop abuse, but that’s the way she rolls. I’m not sure who the TMO was, probably should have found out his name. I’m just not sure about the process, about how many replays for one incident and how many replays for another. He probably just makes his own mind up, whatever he wants. We had opportunities. They are the things that are in our control. We are doing everything we can to become the team that plays rugby with no excuses. We had opportunities to get back in that game, we didn’t [take them].”
England did with ruthless efficiency, the closing flurry seeing tries from Jonathan Joseph, Jonny May, and Danny Care, whose 69th-minute arrival galvanised so much. “You had to take your opportunities when they came about and we managed to take our opportunities better than them,” said Jones. “They brought energy and vibrancy and a bit of creativity, that’s what Danny brought. He came on at the right time, saw space behind and executed brilliantly. It was good squad effort. We played the conditions superbly.”
Jones rejected the notion that England had been fortunate with the TMO decisions. “Why do we have a referee? Why do we have TMOs? How were we lucky? They do 10 replays of a video and make a decision. We had the best guys in the TMO and we’re saying we’re lucky because the decisions went our way. I’m sorry we’re lucky.”
England play Samoa next weekend and will monitor flanker, Sam Underhill, who was forced off with his third head knock of the season.
It was a day of affirmation for England, a day of rueful contemplation for Australia who had little of the rub of the green but contributed hugely to a highoctane occasion only to leave deflated by a blow-out scoreline as Eddie Jones’s side touched down three tries in the final eight minutes.
No matter the good fortune. No matter fine-line decisions, this was a result that cements England’s credentials as World Cup contenders. True, one TMO decision for Elliot Daly’s try in the 55th minute went their way while Marika Koroibete’s was ruled out for crossing 15 minutes later.
Earlier, a Michael Hooper try had been adjudged offside. And Australia at one stage just before half-time were down to 13 men. On such margins. But no quibbling. No more grumbling about sub-par performances.
England may not even have been at their most assured or slickest but they are spurred by a raging inner belief that will take them to significant places. This is a result that resonates. It was no fluke even if the scoreboard flattered them.
They did the spade work that enabled them to take advantage with standout performances in particular from lock Joe Launchbury and the latearriving replacement scrum-half Danny Care. The pressure was all on England’s shoulders. This was the clutch-game of the autumn schedule, a fixture with real consequence.
The fact that Australia might have leapfrogged England into second place in the rankings was the least of it. England had to deal with outside scrutiny. A defeat would have set them back six months.
As it is, the manner as well as the measure of the outcome sends them towards 2018 (assuming that Samoa are dealt with next week) with a justifiable sense of themselves and the possibilities that lie ahead.
This was a seriously impressive result, the sort of resounding finale that used to be the preserve only of the All Blacks.
The late rattle of tries owed much to the arrival on the field of Care who brought an injection of pace and alertness that ripped apart what had been a stern and resilient Wallaby defence. The Harlequin rounded off a superb 11-minute cameo with a try himself at the death, taking advantage of Australia’s desperation to come away with something, Jonny May pouncing with Care on hand to finish off.
May himself had done well to latch on to Care’s clever grubber moments earlier to touchdown, while Care’s eagle-eyed, over-the-shoulder hookkick in the 72nd minute opened up the field for Jonathan Joseph to touch down.
“The Finishers” is how Jones terms his late substitutes and they certainly were true to that sobriquet.
But they can do little if there is nothing on which to build and the hefty figure of Launchbury had done so much to ensure that foundations had been laid. Launchbury was terrific in all elements, a rock.
No wonder that Jones had had the luxury of preferring him ahead of the World Rugby Player of the Year nominee, Maro Itoje.
There are, of course, still blemishes in England’s play. Their discipline was patchy, with some silly penalties among the 10 conceded and their scrum engagement was also off-kilter. Handling was slipshod at times but conditions were filthy. These are fault lines that are easily repaired.
What cannot be denied is that England triumphed against blue-riband opponents.
The Wallabies played to recent form, undefeated in seven, and were far from the raggle-taggle bunch that began their international season with a defeat at home to Scotland and a shellacking from New Zealand.
They were fitter, tougher and smarter, and had a monstrous presence in wing Koroibete, a handful all afternoon. Half-backs Will Genia and Ber-
nard Foley were sharp and elusive while Kurtley Beale has been rejuvenated by his stint with Wasps, a fullback only in the sense that he wears the No 15 shirt, popping up all over the field to trigger attacks.
Beale was at the heart of everything, including, contentiously, his silly lunge for the ball on the stroke of half-time when May was trying to find Joseph on the inside. It was a one-handed contact and adjudged a yellow card by referee Ben O’Keeffe.
He did pop up in midfield in the 27th minute to create an overlap on the left from where Tevita Kuridrani’s kick through almost led to a try for Hooper only for the TMO to rule (correctly) that the flanker had been offside.
England rode their luck. The bounce of a ball can make fools even of the wisest. If Beale had his time again in the 55th minute (or Clement Poitrenaud along the self-same Twickenham touchline in the Heineken Cup final) he would not have dithered and assumed a rugby ball behaves logically.
It looked as if Ben Youngs’s rushed clearance was rolling into touch only for the ball to hold up, causing Beale to look on in astonishment as his onetime Wasps team-mate, Daly, came steaming through to toe-poke the ball downfield from where he was able to hack on and score. It was a border-line decision, as the countless TV replays indicated, but the try was awarded.
There were errors – Hughes losing control of a ball too easily from a flicktackle from the magnificent Hooper – but the constant buzz of the crowd was enough to tell you that a dank, filthy afternoon as being illuminated by the cut and thrust of a Test match.
England had their moments, too, notably when they mauled their way to within a metre of the try line following a line-out, stemmed by the Wallabies but at a cost as their captain, Hooper, was sent to the sin-bin for the second week in succession for constant infringement, to become the most heinous offender in Test rugby following this eighth card
That Itoje was on the field within 17 minutes when Sam Underhill was taken off following a head knock in a tackle did England’s cause no harm.
Itoje was busy and involved throughout, a focal point in the line-out, at no time more so than when stealing a Wallaby throw within England’s 22 after they had opted to go for touch.
England led 6-0 at the interval. The second half was played to a similar tempo until that dramatic denouement. It was a breathless conclusion. And a real tonic for English rugby.