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*POP* And the bubble has burst. The Wallabies, flying high after wins over New Zealand and Wales, have come back down to Earth with a thud with a 35-18 loss to England. What saddens most is that the big talking point of the week, the scrum, was a real non-event in the game. The Wallabies were purely out-enthused by a committed England side who proved they are real contenders in next year’s World Cup.
Australia got off to a shaky start to the game with 3 early missed penalties from range. Meanwhile England were out of the blocks early dominating possession. Toby Flood opened the scoring with a penalty in the Xth minute. England continued their attack and poor tackling from Australia allowed them plenty of metres through the midfield and eventually some excellent offloading from England resulted in Chris Ashton barging over to put England 10-0 in front.
This is where the panic started to set in. England were doing everything England does do; constantly making metres through the centre field, counter-attacking with intent and accuracy and really stretching the Australian defence. There job made all the more easy by a Quade Cooper defence that makes a turn-style look like a titanium-reinforced vault door. Not that numerous other Wallabies weren’t to blame for woeful tackling. Worse still, where Australia were missing shots at goal, England were converting their pressure into points.
James O’Connor managed to finally kick one over in the 32nd minute to settle the nerves and bring the Wallabies back within a converted try of England. This work was soon undone as Toby Flood slotted another two penalties in the 34th and 38th minutes; the second as insult to the injury of a Matt Giteau yellow card for a professional foul on the Australian line.
O’Connor finished a half the Wallabies would have liked to forget with a penalty to bring Australia back to within 10 points. (Half time score 16-6).
The turning point came early on in the second half. The 14 man Australian side were hot on attack and just metres from the try-line when Will Genia darted for the line. England stopped him in his tracks, turned the ball over and, in a truly un-English way, spread the ball wide for Chris Ashton to score a length of the field try and turn what could have been 16-13 into 23-6. Heartbreak. The Wallabies again let down by some terribly shabby defence. The look on forwards faces said it all and the match was lost in that moment. The pain continued as Flood booted another penalty to bring the lead out to 20. The Wallabies fought on but the pressure of being so far behind in the scoreboard took its toll on our young and experienced backline as they started making taking poor options, particularly with the kicking. Yet one of these kicks payed off as Kurtley Beale pounced on his own chip kick to bag a try in the 54th minute.
But once again all of Australia’s hard work was undone with ill-discipline gifting England another 3 and a three-score buffer. From this moment the Wallabies started clicking a bit in attack and finally doing what they should’ve done earlier in the game- they kept it simple and spun the ball wide. Credit to James Slipper who, rather than losing his head and trying to offload from the ground a couple of metres from the try-line, took the ball to ground and allowed the Wallabies attacking machine to put Beale over for a second in the right corner. Even though O’Connor missed the conversion, it was the 65th minute and Australia were trailing by 11 and a glimmer of home remained.
Toby Flood doused the glimmer with a 70th minute penalty. Another Flood penalty in the 77th minute to bring the game to 35-18, the final score, added the humiliation of setting a new record for points scored against Australia in a test.
The Wash-up:
Ouch! That was one of the most painful test losses in recent memory. It hurts as badly this year’s Bledisloe cup match in Melbourne or the trouncing we suffered in JoBurg in 2008. It was a very poor performance from Australia. The team seemed lethargic, uninspired and a mere shade of the dynamic and exuberant team of the last two weeks. What went wrong? Well... lots of things, but mostly the defence. Probably no need to mention Cooper again but I just have so there it is. But it wasn’t just Cooper; reliable tacklers like Adam Ashley-Cooper were falling off tackles too. England were able to build momentum off of Australia’s weak tackling and each time they crossed the gain line the tackling became harder and more metres were made. Even when the Wallabies did manage to turn over the ball their kicks were average and often didn’t make touch which just invited Ben Foden, Chris Ashton and Mark Cueto to run the ball back at pace into an already fragile defence. As cheesy as it is to say it, the Wallabies were their own worst enemies. They were read well by Johnson and his team and ruthlessly exploited. As for our attack, the enthusiasm and accuracy of the past two weeks was missing and England were water tight defensively.
The good news is that they probably can’t play any worse against England and, as mentioned by someone in the match preview thread, it’s better to lose now than it is to lose in 12 months. I have to say though that I’d really like to know what Robbie Deans was thinking coming into this match. He’s played practically the same team for the last 3 games and they just didn’t seem into it. Australia can never hold together a run of form on the road and key personnel changes like Lachie Turner in for Drew Mitchell or Berrick Barnes in for Giteau or Mumm in for Chisholm might’ve made all the difference. Easier to say in hindsight I suppose.
Man of the Match:
If I was going for more cheesy clichés I would say the Wallabies winning the game for England. There weren’t many stand-outs in the Australian camp- Beale was ok, Pocock was good but far from his best. The two Ben(n)s were pretty good I thought. Benn Robinson pretty harshly dealt with at a couple of breakdowns. The Man of the Match definitely came from England and it is a pretty tough call all round. England’s forwards all played very well and their outside backs were a headache all night. It is scary to think how good the team could be if they had a more dangerous midfield. I am going to have to agree with the officials at Twickers though and give it to Ben Youngs. The kid was zippy and kept feeding the ball moving and kept the Aussies under pressure. A year ago it was Will Genia who wowed us all and played havoc with the English side and this year Youngs has got his own back for England. You bastard.
Thats all from me folks. Thank you and goodnight.
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Originally Posted by pieter blackie
