England flex their muscles again
● Return of Tuilagi and the emergence of Cokanasiga restores morale ahead of 2019
England entered their autumn series under a cloud of doubt over a patched-up pack. They left it on Saturday with a 37-18 rout of Australia that completed a satisfactory three wins and one loss, a team reinvigorated by a discernible game plan of smash and grab, and the cheers of bumper Twickenham crowds hailing new faces and the return of an absent friend.
The knives that were out for England’s head coach Eddie Jones in some quarters, after the dire run of five Test losses earlier in the year, have been returned to the kitchen drawer, and while Ireland in Dublin on the first Saturday in February should represent a step up from anything encountered on home turf in the past month – yes, even the All Blacks – there is room for optimism during the brief pause for reflection before the players hurtle back into eight rounds of club rugby in the Premiership and European Cup before the Six Nations.
Manu Tuilagi’s first Test appearance since March 2016, as a secondhalf substitute against the woeful Wallabies, received an almighty roar and Jones said the players shared the acclaim for the much-injured Leicester centre. “They like playing with him,” Jones said of Tuilagi. “He’s got something; he looks like a heavyweight boxer. He has a bit of footwork, he carries hard and players like playing with those sorts of guys and they’ll go to the well for them.”
Tuilagi himself wore a wide smile afterwards. “I am just very blessed for the fans to feel like that,” he said of Twickenham’s fourth successive attendance of more than 80,000. “It was like my first cap, and I was nervous, very nervous. But I loved it.”
Then there was the new boy, Joe Cokanasiga, winning his second cap a week after he marked his debut against Japan with a try. Mighty Joe scored again after a collision with Dane Haylett-petty that crumpled the Australian in an unnatural fashion. Jamie George, England’s hooker who significantly played 72 minutes before Dylan Hartley replaced him, called Cokanasiga “a freak” – the same words Will Carling once used in grudgingly awestruck praise of Jonah Lomu.
This comparison with the late, great New Zealand colossus was put to Jones, who recalled how Lomu, for all his rampant scoring, fell short in his two shots at the World C up, in 1995 and 1999. “I tell you what Lomu did,” Jones said. “He nearly won a World Cup for New Zealand. When Joe nearly wins a World Cup for us, he won’t be good enough, because he has to win a World Cup for us. Then you can start talking about Lomu.”
Jones was happier speaking about England’s scrum, anchored by man of the match Kyle Sinckler, and the defence system installed this autumn by new assistant coach John Mitchell and led on-field by Owen farrell and brad shields.
The second-half sledging of the Aussies by Sinckler was reminiscent of his antics in the one-point loss to the All Blacks a fortnight ago – fantastic inthe-face swagger mixed with a try missed when he dropped a pass near the line. Here, the 25-year-old Harlequin carried brilliantly 12 times into the guts of the aussie s but sin ck lerl iv es on the edge of the volcano, and risks others being burnt, teammates and opponents alike.
Jones had another analogy for it. “If someone drives a taxi, what have they got to be able to do? Get you from A to B safely,” he said. “If you play tighthead prop, you have to be able to scrum. You can get a nice radio or a nice seat-warmer in the car, all those things count. The main thing is that he’s scrummaging and all those other things are add-ons.”
There is bristle in this England, all right. Maro Itoje grandly invited the Wallabies to look at the scoreboard in a late push-and-shove, just after George Ford used Tuilagi as a decoy and sent Farrell through for England’s fourth try. Farrell’s teeth-bared insistence that no opponent will go past him was seen yet again in a challenge led by his shoulder, on the second row, Izack Rodda. The other most recent high-profile example came in the 12-11 win over South Africa in the autumn opener. On both occasions, the referee waved playon. so, is it working for farrell or is his luck running out?
Fair play to Haylett-petty, he gathered his wits and stopped Cokanasiga scoring another try (one which, by the way, Lomu in his pomp would have finished). But the overall vision of dominant collisions allowing the undoubted skills of Slade, elliot daly and, yes, ford, to flourish, has Jones smiling. As Tuilagi put it: “Instead of throwing it out wide, try and go through them in the midfield; just hit the inside shoulders.” It is simple, but effective. SCORERS:
ENGLAND: Tries: May, Daly, Cokanasiga, Farrell. Cons: Farrell 4. Pens: Farrell 3.
AUSTRALIA: Tries: Folau 2. Cons: Toomua. Pens: Toomua 2.
ENGLAND: Daly, Cokanasiga, Slade, Te’o, May, Farrell, Youngs, Moon, George, Sinckler, Itoje, Lawes, Shields, Underhill, Wilson.
Substitutes: Tuilagi for Slade (69), Ford for Te’o (75), Wigglesworth for Youngs (57), Hepburn for Moon (69), Hartley for George (72), Williams for Sinckler (65), Ewels for Lawes (77), Hughes for Underhill (75).
AUSTRALIA: Folau, Haylett-petty, Kerevi, Foley, Maddocks, Toomua, Genia, Sio, Latu, Kepu, Rodda, Coleman, Dempsey, Hooper, Samu. Substitutes: Naivalu for Maddocks (41), Phipps for Genia (69), Ainsley for Sio (67), Polota-nau for Latu (49), Alaalatoa for Kepu (57), Simmons for Coleman (69), Hanigan for Samu (57).