Aussie clash is Judgment Day for Jones and England
THIS is a judgment day for England. A cliff edge has been reached. In the closing stages of a disintegrating season, Eddie Jones’ team desperately need to beat Australia in today’s second Test in Brisbane.
The worst-case scenario would see Jones’s transitioning side finish the season with seven defeats in nine games.
While inside the camp the focus is on the rebuilding mission, outside the gates there are constant, anguished howls about the credibility of this England regime.
Of course, the World Cup is the coveted pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it is a betrayal of the very essence of elite sport to turn all the Tests between now and then into non-events.
England fans care about success in the Six Nations and they crave wins against Australia. It never grows old, in cricket or rugby or anything else.
Dominance of this rivalry has been one of the calling cards of the Jones era in charge of England, so a profound shift in the balance of power would feel highly significant.
The fear for the tourists is that, having ended their eight-match losing run against their northern nemesis in Perth, the Wallabies have cleared a mental hurdle and the confidence surge will allow former Glasgow coach Dave Rennie’s side to take the series with a game to spare.
They are still without Quade Cooper and the mighty La Rochelle lock, Will Skelton, but they have Taniela Tupou back in their front row and, with the precocious Jordan Petaia at full-back, they have another opportunity to enhance short-term momentum as well as long-term prospects.
This is their stronghold. Australia have won ten in a row against allcomers at the Suncorp Stadium since England stormed the fortress six years ago. In the period of home rule since, the Wallabies have seen off South Africa three times, New Zealand and France twice, although the French sides were a long way from full strength.
But England forwards coach Richard Cockerill played down the significance of that record and any sense of the visitors entering a daunting venue.
‘It is just a game,’ said the former Edinburgh head coach. ‘It is just a pitch. Ninety per cent of our lads wouldn’t even know that (ten in a row). In fact, I didn’t know that until you told me!
‘We just get on with the game. It is not a factor for us.’
There are ghosts in this city for England, of past oval-ball horrors. Cockerill started in the team that endured a record 76-0 loss here in 1998, at the start of the so-called ‘Tour of Hell’. He did not enjoy the reminder.
Asked what his memories of that grim episode are, he quipped: ‘The 76-0 one? It was really s***. Is that enough?’
Some Australian fans were on the edge of the pitch doing more and more press-ups, in line with the mounting points tally and Cockerill added: ‘The bit I can remember is that the boys who were doing press-ups soon got bored of doing press-ups. I have deleted that from my memory!’
Back in the present, England have players running on near-empty after a shattering season, notably Maro Itoje and captain Courtney Lawes, who were mainstays of the Lions Test team last summer.
It will take a monumental effort to hit back here and set up a decider in Sydney but defence coach Anthony Seibold argued the character of the squad’s fighters will come to the fore, as it will need to.
‘You look at our leaders like Courtney, Owen (Farrell) and Ellis Genge — you want to go to war with those guys,’ said the Queensland local in the England coaching team. ‘Working with those three guys in particular, amongst others, you know if you had to go to war, they’re going to stand up.’