ON THE BALL
Aussie off-the-ball jibes simply inspire England to gutsy win in series decider
ENGLAND skipper Courtney Lawes revealed Wallaby words inspired his side to ram them back down their throats and claim this series win.
After losing the opener, England bounced back in Brisbane then delivered at the SCG by gutsing out this win which shut up the Aussies.
All week the Australians, scrum-half Nic White especially, have been baiting England about their off-the-ball tactics and rough house game-plan, picking out Ellis Genge and Jonny Hill.
But they had those words rammed back where they came from as Freddie Steward, Billy Vunipola, Genge, Tommy Freeman & Co took the fight to the hosts to back up the 2016 whitewash down here.
Barricades
England were 21-10 up, with a quarter left, thanks to Marcus Smith’s 50m score – then the Wallabies threw the kitchen sink at them to get within four points.
But England manned the barricades for the last few minutes and fly home with a 2-1 series victory.
Lawes said: “We saw plenty of stuff from their players and what they were saying – some people targeting Gengey and some people calling us Poms and what-not. It’s all good fuel for our tank and any good team uses that as motivation I think.
“We just stayed in it. We have fought for each other... I mean, they give us a good bit of fuel in the press to be fair. They were talking smack about us. That motivated us a bit but the boys stuck together, stuck to our guns. We didn’t fire that many shots tonight unfortunately but we found a way to win, that’s the big improvement.”
Genge added: “They came out in the press with a bit of smack and it got us up for the last one.”
Boss Eddie
Jones was purring and he reckons this win was better than the 3-0 walloping of the Wallabies six years ago.
Jones added: “This was tougher. We had a more established team in 2016 coming on the back of the Grand Slam and coming on the back of a 2015 team.
We are nurturing this team at the moment, we have got a good group of senior players and we have got all these guys coming through so it was an entirely different experience.”
Those guys coming through include 21-year-old full-back Freddie Steward, who had the game of his life here, 21-year-old Tommy Freeman who was outstanding on his second cap and Jack van Poortvliet, the scrum-half. Van Poortvliet came on early for veteran Danny Care, after 37 minutes, which Jones stressed was tactical but it could spell the end of Care’s
international comeback. England were 11-10 ahead at the break and if this had been a cricket match they would have been following on.
They were totally dominated in the first half hour, the opposite of what happened in Brisbane’s second Test, and could have been out of the game but Australia butchered two chances.
But Steward’s try just before the break, to cap a half when he had been a defensive rock, nudged England in front.
Owen Farrell’s boot kept things ticking, taking it to 14-10 then Smith had his moment.
The Harlequins fly-half picked up a fumbled ball on the halfway line as the Wallabies tried to attack and ran in 50m to score.
Monstrous
That had poked the bear as Australia threw everything into it but England, with Steward again monstrous in defence, held out and that was that.
Lawes added: “We really wanted it as a team just to cap the tour off properly.
“We have really had a great time, we have stuck together, we have spent a lot of time together and we have really invested time together.
“We wanted to go out and make this tour special.”
AUSTRALIA: Tries: Wright, Fainga’a.
Cons: Lolesio (2). Pen: Lolesio.
ENGLAND: Tries: Steward, Smith.
Con: Farrell. Pens: Farrell (3).