England complete perfect year
ENGLAND overcame an awful start to roar back and overwhelm Australia 37-21 with a dominant display at Twickenham yesterday to complete a perfect year of 13 victories under coach Eddie Jones.
Australia led 10-0 and had three tries ruled out in a onesided first quarter, but led only 16-13 at the break and barely got another look at the England line.
Clever tries for Marland Yarde and Ben Youngs and a second for Jonathan Joseph were fair reward for England’s second-half control, as they finished off the year in style.
Including the World Cup win over Uruguay, yesterday’s victory took England’s winning run to 14 – equalling the national record set under Clive Woodward from 2002-03.
It was a fourth successive win over Australia, who, since losing to New Zealand in the World Cup final on the same ground 13 months ago, have lost nine of their 15 games.
England won’t want to watch replays of the first 20 minutes, but would enjoy the rest of what was an impressive performance, mixing pragmatism with slick handling and inventive attacking.
An extraordinary opening 20 minutes left Australia in control and, if the TMO had been on their side, they could have been out of sight.
Bernard Foley sent one penalty wide after two minutes, but winger Sefa Naivalu WINNING THE SPRINT: England’s Marland Yarde, left, beats Australia’s Israel Folau to score a try during yesterday’s International at Twickenham in London. got them on the board with a try. Tevita Kuridrani (twice) and Sekope Kepu crossed the line during periods of Wallaby dominance, but a knock-on and non-groundings allowed England to escape with one more Foley penalty to trail 10-0.
The hosts nibbled back at the lead with two Farrell penal- ties and, when the inside centre hacked on after a Kepu fumble on halfway, Joseph was the fastest chaser to claim England’s first try. Farrell converted and England were ahead. Two more Foley penalties gave Australia a 16-13 half-time lead that was the least they deserved.
The Wallabies had further cause to curse the TMO four minutes after the restart, when he ruled that Yarde got his hand to the ball ahead of Israel Folau after a deft kick by Joseph.
By the 50-minute it was 27-16 after scrum-half Youngs threw another of what is fast becoming his trademark dum- mies to leave sucked-in opposite number Nick Phipps almost tackling a steward – and the crowd roaring.
Kepu scored in a rare Wallaby break, but after a yellow card for winger Dane Haylett-Petty for a late tackle, Joseph got his second when he picked off a floated David Pocock pass to round off a memorable year.
“The wins breed confidence,” flanker Tom Wood said. “There is a feel-good factor and a self-belief that we didn’t have in the past. We work hard in the week, to the relentless nature of Eddie Jones and the coaches.” – Reuters ONE of the few certainties about the Springboks is that a new captain will be appointed in 2017.
Adriaan Strauss long ago ruled himself out, an astonishing decision given how treasured the position is for most laaities growing up in South Africa. For a bloke who attended illustrious rugby school Grey College to abandon that post is a huge indictment. Perhaps, like the coaching job, the captaincy has become too heavy a yoke to bear.
If the current rules apply, the new captain won’t be Duane Vermeulen or Francois Louw. There is no appetite for a captain who plays his rugby overseas. It’s not a good look.
What’s more, Vermeulen’s position is curious. There’s been some cute spin around his recent non-availability; suffice to say that he and the suits don’t quite see eye to eye. There’s some repair work to be done.
All things being equal, Vermeulen is South Africa’s number one number eight. He’s the bruising sort of player whose presence galvanises his teammates.
He would have been shocked by what he witnessed of the recent tour; he wouldn’t have recognised the meek performances, for that’s not how he plays.
Formidable
Which brings us to the case of Warren Whiteley, the most classical eighthman we have. The Lions skipper is a formidable figure, brave and hard-working.
He is warm and approachable and thoroughly wellspoken. His Lions teammates gravitated towards him in Super Rugby on account of his sterling workrate.
But there’s only one winner when he and Vermeulen are in the mix for the eighthman’s jersey. We saw as much in the recent series of Test matches.
Whiteley was all honest endeavour, but was unable to impose his will, albeit when few of his teammates did.
The captain has to be assured of his position, which means that Whiteley cannot be the long-term pick (assuming a rapprochement is made between Vermeulen and management).
Pat Lambie was in the mix before Strauss was appointed, but is he the man to take the Boks to 2019? He, too, struggled on the tour and might not have the gravitas of a national captain. He would certainly be different, but he’s not the type of man to gee up his troops when the pressure is on. He’s also not the player to take a game by the scruff and dominate.
For my money, the best man to assign the captaincy – and to build a new team around – is Handre Pollard. It might be a case of out of sight, out of mind due to the flyhalf ’s long-term injury, but Pollard is back in training and should be dead right in time for the new season.
Just 22, the Bulls player is a former world junior player of the year and memorably cut the All Blacks to pieces with two splendid tries at Ellis Park in 2014. He’s big and brave and plays flat.
Pollard also offers a freshness that the Boks desperately require. He can mix up the running and kicking game and has the presence and bearing that would make him comfortable before the public and media. He wouldn’t mind the tough questions and the glad-handing that are job prerequisites.
Of course, there’s a caveat to Pollard taking the job. He needs to get back his A-game.
Don’t forget, among his injuries was a severe shoulder problem where amputation was a real possibility after complications from surgery.
For him to merely be attending the Bulls training camp in George this week is a miracle in itself.
In an odd twist, Pollard will likely play under Strauss at the Bulls next season, but he has the experience of leading a top team. Two years ago he captained SA under-20 to the final of the junior world championship. Reports from New Zealand were glowing.
Pollard’s injury hasn’t been all bad. He was probably fortunate not to make this tour, one where reputations were blown and many big names crashed and burned.
He wasn’t associated with the 2016 international season in any way.
That, in itself, can be no bad thing for the man to whom we ought to turn to help salvage the damage of an unspeakably bad year.