A big statement of resilience and ability to put teams away
In crushing a very strong Australia side, Eddie Jones’ team showed just how effective they have become at taking their chances and putting their opponents away
Ithought England’s performance from 69 minutes onwards was a tremendous statement of their resilience and their ability to put teams away. At that point, we were looking at a fine game of rugby that seemed like it was going to be decided by one score. But for England to pull through and end up with a record-winning margin over a very good Australia side will delight Eddie Jones.
World Cup habits
In the lead-up to Rugby World Cup 2015, England played some good rugby but they could not finish teams off. They did not win some Six Nations tournaments when they were the best team in the competition. Now, they are an 80-minute team. Yesterday they took the points on offer in the first half, kicking two penalties to make it 6-0. Then they seized their opportunities in the second, even when they were on the back foot for long periods. It’s in the pressure situations in World Cups that you have to score critical points at critical times. You have to put teams away when there has been nothing in a game for pretty much 70 minutes. In rugby terms, Australia edged the first half and were certainly better for the first 20 minutes of the second. They were controlling most of the key moments, like Marika Koroibete’s turnover after he tackled Owen Farrell. Some of the precision, speed and slickness in Australia’s rugby was fantastic, even if conditions mitigated against them. Their backline impressed me, and on a dry day they might have cut loose with their back play. I also thought Michael Hooper was outstanding. Australia’s pack had the edge over England in the scrums. England kept them under pressure at the line-outs but there was very little in it at the breakdown.
Kicking foils Australia
One of the major reasons why England ended up with a 30-point scoreline was their kicking. They took pressure off themselves. In attack, they did what they didn’t do last week. They adjusted tactically and showed real variety. The kicking game that looked so stereotyped against Argentina ultimately became the key to unleashing devastating scores. Ben Youngs raised the tempo with quick taps. Early on, they used cross-field kicks to try and isolate Bernard Foley.
Later, they kicked down the channels and forced Australia’s back three to turn in the wet. That is where all of their tries came from, with Danny
Care – along with the rest of England’s bench – really making an impact.
That is also important in
World Cups. Jones has another two years left, but I think he knows what his front-line is and he is getting his replacements to influence matches as well. England won this with the bench players.
Jonathan
Joseph came into the game in the last 10 minutes as well. When
Hooper had charged down Farrell, it was Joseph who got the ball back again. They were all working hard for each other. All of that meant that Australia didn’t put away their opportunities and England did.
Defence reinforced
In two internationals, England have given away 14 points. You could see the improvements in their defence, in the line-speed and in the hits. They built on what was good last week against a very dangerous Australia, closing down their space aggressively. Because Australia play flat to the gain line and because they pass late, the big hits coming in on the wet ball forced errors. Both sides committed them, and what made the game exciting was that both teams were willing to attack off turnover ball – when teams are least ready to defend. Before Elliot Daly’s try, there were moments when both teams might have scored. Suddenly it was 13-3 when it could have been Australia going in front at
10-6.
Room to improve
Joe Launchbury was head and shoulders above anyone else as man of the match. His carrying and tackling and his high game involvement was fantastic. Courtney Lawes did very well too. Now Jones has options in the second row. Nathan Hughes, Chris Robshaw and Maro Itoje were all involved in every aspect.
There are always things to work on and England did have a couple of chances when Australia were down to 13 men. With a four-on-two on the outside, Itoje was freed up. He should have given the ball to Jonny May and supported him. Even if May hadn’t scored, Itoje would have been in position to take a support pass.
Small margins
The calls that stopped both Australian tries were tight, but, in the end, they were disallowed by the TMO. When you look at it, Hooper was offside for the first one. Stephen Moore was in front of Koroibete for the second. Another TMO might have said Koroibete had not impact on Chris Robshaw but, nevertheless, he was ahead of the ball and he was involved in the contact.
As soon as it goes to the TMO, the decision is made with all of the information there. It was the same with Daly chasing the kick on the touchline. The margins don’t get much smaller than that. It just so happened that three big decisions all went against Australia.
There wasn’t anything to say that those decisions were incorrect, but it was unusual to get three such tight decisions going the same way in a tight game.
If you’d have seen them over six games, you wouldn’t have made much of them. Seeing them all in one game just goes to show how close Australia were to winning the game.
But now England have won five in a row against a very dangerous team. That will feel
very satisfying.
The kicking game became the key to unleashing devastating scores