Key events
Here’s the full match report
Steve Borthwick looks grim-faced
“Gutting. We made such a number of errors and it gave opportunities to the opposition to run in tries and they did. In terms of our mindset, you are seeing a team wanting to move the ball and we want that, but we have to understand the consequences of it, and we saw that today. We didn’t give our defence the chance to show what it can do, there was so much turnover and loose ball that they system couldn’t set itself. There’ll be no shortage of motivation for next week for South Africa”
Jamie George is trying to fathom what on earth happened
“The blueprint of how we want to play was in the first 20 minutes, but took our foot off the gas and we can’t do that, but credit to Australia. It’s a tough balance between closing up shop and keeping on playing and our late score showed we were being brave.
The defensive system works, but we lost the collisions tonight and leaking 42 points at home is unacceptable. We need to stick to the system but get better within it.”
Joseph Suaali’i was awarded player of the match, and he was excellent, but that ignores Tom Wright who was outstanding bringing the ball out from defence – amazing to remember Eddie Jones thought him surplus to requirements. Shout out to Harry Wilson as well, a real captain’s shift.
There’ll be some post-mortem after this loss for England after being 12 points up and broadly cruising at home vs an unconvincing 2024 Australia team. But, Joe Schmidt appears to be crafting something that harnesses the best of Wallaby rugby – running, wide enterprise – with what makes him a good coach: pattern, sensible territory, kicks.
FULL TIME! AUSTRALIA HAVE BLOODY WON IT!
I need a lie down….
TRY! England 37 – 42 Australia (Max Jorgenson)
80+3 mins. The ball comes left through three pairs of hands and via an incredible one-handed Ikitau offload to Jorgenson who races up the left touchline to score the winning try.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
80+2 mins. Ball won by the Aussies, they are approaching the 22
80+1 mins. Scrum still not completed
80 mins. The clock is in the red and Australia have a scrum just in the England half after Suaali’i got amongst the restart once more.
TRY! England 37 – 35 Australia (Maro Itoje)
79 mins. From a 5m scum Ben Earl drives at the line from the base. He’s held up, but the recycle has Cowan-Dickie having a carry then Itoje who has probably won it for his team!
Smith converts it to change the lead once more”!
TRY! England 30 – 35 Australia (Andrew Kellaway)
75 mins. England try a midfield pattern which works the ball to Ford on the second wave attack who pops it to Lawrence who has overrun it slightly. The ball goes to ground and is gathered by Kellaway who goes on a 6o metre meandering sprint that gives the chasing defence the runaround all the way to the line.
Two points added.
72 mins. England have settled into Ford and Randall kicking for territory and forcing Australia to play from there. The Wallabies are not as expansive as they were and new fly half Ben Donaldson puts boot to ball from deep, this just invites more territorial kicking from the home side.
TRY! England 30 – 28 Australia (Ollie Sleightholme)
68 mins. Marcus Smith appears in the 10 channel, drops his shoulder and is behind the tackle line to find a rampaging Lawrence in midfield. The ball is quickly recycled left all the way to Sleightholme who adds another try to his busy afternoon.
Smith tells Ford he’s the man for the kick and backs it up by slotting a cracker from the touchline. ENGLAND ARE BACK IN FRONT!
67 mins. A scrum move on the 22 from England goes up the blindside via Earl to Sleightholme, but there’s not enough room and the winger is bundled into touch.
65 mins. England win their penalty lineout but spill the ball forward in the 22. Tate McDermott gathers it but the onrushing English chase clamps the visitors close to their line and the clearing kick is a poor one.
England will come back at them with fifteen minutes to go and five points in it.
63 mins. There are howls from the home crowd as Salakaia-Loto runs a blocking line on Sleightholme that looks like it was shoulder to head. Replays show there’s not much in it, but it does hand England a penalty.
61 mins. George Ford is on for Furbank, which will see Smith move to fullback. Harry Randall on for Ben Spencer also.
59 mins. More offloads and more support runners from Australia move them up to the England 22. It looks dangerous but Marcus Smith sprints across to hammer Jorgenson to stop the momentum before the resulting ruck is a mess that awards a relieving penalty to the home side.
TRY! England 23 – 28 Australia (Ollie Sleightholme)
57 mins. A lineout catch and drive from England in the Aussie 22 pulls the gold defenders in. The ball is out to Smith on the short side who checks inside and dabs a grubber through that bounces up into Sleightholme’s arms to score.
PENALTY! England 18 – 28 Australia (Noah Lolesio)
52 mins. Australia are now a carnival of runners and a total nightmare for England’s increasingly ragged defence. Tom Wright bursts out of his own 22 again, dodging three poor tackle attempts from the English chasers; he rattles forward for 50 metres and boots it forward into the 22. Possession is retained by the Wallabies and England are again offside as they desperately scramble.
Lolesio rightly decides it’s sensible at this stage to make it a two score game and takes the three points.
TRY! England 18 – 25 Australia (Jeremy Williams)
50 mins. From a lineout on the 22 Australia work a cute short lineout aand move up to the 5m line. They recycle and keep the attack narrow working it back to the left touchline for Williams to dive over in inches of space.
The referee gives it on the field and the TMO takes a very long and repeated look to see if his foot was in touch. The fact it took about 12 replays and we still could not conclusively tell of it was out means we stay with the refs call, which is fair
Lolesio misses the converions.
49 mins. England return to the Australia half with an attack that again has plenty phases with not a lot happening. The ball is lost forward and again the Wallabies fire it wide immediately to have another go at the outside defence. The are back in English territory via a kick to touch.
47 mins. The visitors remain on the ball in the 22, probing with runs before Lolesio chips it forward for Suaali’i who jumps and executes an outrageous slap back to keep possession with his side. To their credit the England defence remain unbamboozled and marshall their cover to contain the attack.
45 mins. The daring nature of Australia’s play shows no signs of abating, with Tom Wright dropping a shoulder and driving through a big gap in his own half to race 4o metres. He chips it forward into the 22 and it’s a foot race that Smith wins with a desperate covering run to dive on the ball.
42 mins. Lolesio sees his side not going far and puts a chip in for Ikitau to get after, but it’s won by Slade. This puts England in possession and moving into the Australia half, comfortably working phases before they fizz it left. However it’s so comfortable it borders on pedestrian and goes nowhere.
Second half!
A short kick off from Australia is won again by a chasing Suaali’i
Not a bad way to spend your afternoon/evening so far. England looking much better than last week in some areas particularly with ruck speed, attacking shape and the confidence with the ball. Still some nagging issues with the new defensive system and their poor discipline under pressure was piling up in the second quarter.
It’s hard to know what to make of Australia as there seems to be no plan other than giving it a lash out wide. But they will be happy their scrum settled as the half went on and their defence is doing enough to frustrate the home side.
It really is wonderfully poised, but any decent period of possession for England results in regular points, while the Wallabies are more about more inspirational and daring penetration. Surely England at home can rack up enough of the former to blunt the impact of the latter?
Half Time!
PEEEEEP! That’s the final action of an entertaining half of rugby.
PENALTY! England 18 – 20 Australia (Noah Lolesio)
41 mins. Lolesio plays it sensibly and takes the kick to put his side in front at the half.
40 mins. On another penalty advantage – England are offside consistently in their scramble defence – Tupou is this close to getting an offload away to Valetini for a try run-in, but fumbles it forward!
38 mins. Cunningham-South is penalised for dithering in his retreat and blocking Kellaway’s access to chase a kick. The penalty puts the Wallabies in possession and in the 22.
36 mins. Australia have hauled themselves back into this match via a cocktail of some adventurous running and England’s new defensive system racing up a bit rapid and losing shape. This is a similar issue as last week for the home side, when the Will Jordan try came from a similar situation,
TRY! England 18 – 17 Australia (Harry Wilson)
33 mins. Tate McDermott is on due to Jake Gordon’s blood bin and he’s straight into action with a tap and go that puts his side up in the 22. A couple of phases later he darts from the base of the ruck, bears down on the fullback and offloads to the supporting Wilson to ground it.
Lolesio makes it a one point game with his conversion
31 mins. Suaali’i get up high to disrupt England restart gather and does enough to win possession for his side. Tupou has a big carry in midfield but spills the ball forward as he hits the deck. It’s not a great afternoon for the big prop so far.
PENALTY! England 18 – 10 Australia (Marcus Smith)
29 mins. Buoyed with confidence from their running exploits, Australia go wide again from the restart but Ikitau overruns the pass a bit and ends up knocking forward on his 22.
Tupou is penalised again at the resulting scrum allowing Smith to add three more to the total
TRY! England 15 – 10 Australia (Tom Wright)
26 mins. The ball comes out of a pile of bodies following the 5m lineout, it’s fired to Suaali’i who draws two towards him and deftly floats a one handed overhead pass to Wright who gallops over in the corner. Lovely stuff.
Lolesio adds two points.
25 mins. The Wallabies are in the 22 and England have responded by fanning out in defence and not committing anyone to the ruck, almost daring the gold attack to get through their white line. The visitors make some headway, but England are offside and the ball is despatched to the corner by Lolesio.
Thankfully, Curry is up and walking off but he’ll rightly play no further part in the match and is replaced by Alex Dombrandt.
22 mins. Australia have the novelty of some phased possession in the England half and are making some headway, particularly from a huge carry from Wilson that send Tom Curry flying backwards. Two recycles later Valetini takes a turn to run into Curry and this time the backrower looks to be out cold on the floor.
The ref blows up immediately after Valetini points out what’s happened. The clock is off while the medical teams come and take a look. Here’s hoping all is as well as it can be for the Sale and England man.
20 mins. Feyi-Waboso’s clever gumshield has triggered a head injury assessment, so he’s off and replaced by Ollie Sleightholme
PENALTY! England 15 – 3 Australia (Marcus Smith)
18 mins. An absolutely brilliantly bonkers few minutes that began with Australia deciding to run it from their 22 via Suaalii and Wright. They go a full 70 metres with interchanges of passes, but lose the ball in the final offload and that allows England to come back at them, slicing through broken field runners for 60 metres. There’s one more each of these runs from deep for both sides before McReight is penalised for sealing off the ruck.
Smith decides it’s time for everyone to have a breather while scores more points.
14 mins. The first scrum of the match has England winning a penalty for Tupou collapsing. So far there’s nothing in this match for Australia to feel positive about.
TRY! England 12 – 3 Australia (Chandler Cunningham-South)
12 mins. Another attack for England and they are behind the Wallaby defence with a troubling ease if you are Joe Schmidt. The gold tacklers do enough to hold them out as they drive at the line, but the home side were playing on an advantage. They take a simple tap and go with Genge hammering forward to offload to Cunningham-South who drives over for his second in twelve minutes!
The TMO wants Ref O’Keefe to check the grounding as there’s a hint of separation, but it’s all good and Smith converts it.
PENALTY! England 5 – 3 Australia (Noah Lolesio)
9 mins. Australia decide to assert themselves at the breakdown and counter-ruck with the strenght of ten bears. This allows the ball to be nicked and offloaded to McReight who storms upfield and into the opposing half, forcing a scrambling England defence offside.
Lolesio tees it up and drills it over from 35 metres.
TRY! England 5 – 0 Australia (Chandler Cunningham-South)
5 mins. Marcus Smith glances up, sees a bit of space behind the Aussie defence and prods a kick into it that Lawrence gathers to carry into the 22. The ball is recycled quick and worked through hands out to Cunningham-South lurking on the right touchline to dive over and open the scoring.
Smith misses the conversion from out wide.
3 mins. Henry Slade is playing 12 today, but swaps out to 13 in defence with Lawrence taking the inside channel. Interesting.
2 mins. England are high tempo from the off with their first possession, Feyi-Waboso off his wing for a big rugby league style carry from in his own half. They are working the ball and are up to double figures in phases, something they didn’t do once in the whole game last week.
The attack comes to an end when Tupou holds up the tackle, but that was an encouraging couple of early minutes from the home side.
Kick Off!
Marcus Smith send the ball skywards and deep, the Wallabies deal with it sensibly.
Meanwhile, at the SponsorNameDome Twickenham, the anthems are completed and we’re about to quite literally kick off.
“You cannot baldly state that no 13 is the most important both in attack and defense.” challenges Alison or Christopher Marks, “You have to give a few reasons for this declaration.”
Well I can, and I don’t have to do anything, but seeing as you didn’t ask nicely I’ll have a go.
Thirteen is the lynchpin of any defensive system, if it was up to me the outside centre and defence coach should be forced to live together. This position knits together the edge and central defence as makes decisions that others the follow, eg leads the blitz.
In attack, especially an attack like Australia, the outside centre is the key to shape and alignment and preventing the dreaded drift sideways.
I’ve realised that I should have added in my original statement that 13 is the most important position in attack and defence in the back division.
“A sleepy Gervase Greene here in Sydney.” opens a correspondent from down under.
“The Wobblies should be competitive… but doubt they’ll be more than that. There’s a better spirit about the place now (not saying much; thanks Eddie), but the cattle ain’t there yet. Really wish we had Kerevi back, he is so important to stiffen a fairly flaky back six. There’s a lot of unfair expectation being placed on Joseph Sua’alii by the warring code factions here . Fact is, he’s a very bright prospect, but he’s an outside back!”
“We are a couple of heavy duty mongrels short of playing serious Test rugby, and our few previously top-grade players like Taniela Tupou – though still only young – are already on the physical decline. If we get a roll on early, I guess we’re a chance. But not that much of one.”
Andrew Benton emails in.
“I was excited (honestly!) to read that there’s a new Ford Capri – really cool, in a retro revamp sort of way. And then I searched for it, and saw it, and oh my gosh, if that isn’t Australia’s rugby union team in modern car form I don’t know what is.”
Absolutely right.
This game is being played in the wake of Danny Care’s book, which lays bare the horrific culture of playing for Eddie Jones. Most of the players on the park today will have reflections on this, you would think.
Pre match reading
Plenty of opinions on the England team and what they need to do to win games of rugby union football
I’m here and available for all communication via the email. Tell me all your thoughts on the game or anything else.
Teams
Steve Borthwick has been consistent in his selections for a while and this continues with his selection today.
For Australia, the big talking point is the already mention selection of Sua’ali’i at 13, the most important position in the back division both in attack and defence. The NRL convert was Jones era deal, but Schmidt seems convinced by the 21-year-old also.
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Sleightholme
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen
Preamble
We are often told to keep things in perspective, in particular that things are never quite as bad as they feel. There’s been a lot of that recently for people with their attention focused on US politics, the relaunch of the Ford Capri, or the men’s Australia rugby union team.
Wins this year have been scarce and against the likes of Georgia, Portugal and the much troubled Wales, while the defeats have been plentiful and often humiliating; including shipping 67 points vs Argentina in the Rugby Championship and coupled with dwindling crowds. No surprise the vibe around the squad and the sport is poor as they commence this tour and look forward to welcoming the British & Irish Lions next summer. Is it all as bad as it feels?
Perhaps not. They have Joe Schmidt, and while the results have been rubbish for a while they do at least look like they have a plan of how he wants them to play. A plan that may function eventually rather than some diabolical, ego driven dystopian nightmare that stains us all like the one Eddie Jones clearly had. The selection of league convert Joseph Sua’ali’i to start a test match at outside centre in his first union match since schooldays speaks to the current Australian state, but Schmidt is not usually a starry eyed bloke, so you have to be believe this forms part of the the longer term improvement. It would be some statement if Schmidt could start to really make his mark in this match.
History does not favour the Kiwi-born coach, with a solitary Wallaby win in the previous eleven meetings and while England have had nothing more than a fair to middling 2024 at best, they are showing enough form to put this particular Aussie offering away.
One of these sides will be heavily trying to keep things in perspective come the final whistle, we’ll know which in a few hours.
