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England player ratings vs Australia | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

By Liam Heagney at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
England players show their dejection at the end (Photo by Andrew Kearns/CameraSport via Getty Images)

England player ratings live from Allianz Stadium, Twickenham: After successive one, seven and two-point defeats to New Zealand, this was a Saturday afternoon ripe for Steve Borthwick’s team to take their many All Blacks frustrations out on a wounded Wallabies XV.

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It seemed that they eventually would do so as they appeared to have rescued the result with a 78th minute Maro Itoje try converted by Marcus Smith, who was given the full duration here unlike seven days ago but was still moved to full-back for the madcap conclusion.

However, a brilliantly bonkers 10-try thriller had one decisive last twist remaining… and it was Australia who were left celebrating a remarkable 42-37 victory with an 83rd minute Max Jorgensen converted try that the tackle-missing Ollie Sleightholme, the scorer of two second-half England tries, nor Smith will want to remember.

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Rassie Erasmus says the seven-one bench split will never be normalised

Rassie Erasmus believes a seven-one split on the bench is something that will continue to divide opinion.

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Rassie Erasmus says the seven-one bench split will never be normalised

Rassie Erasmus believes a seven-one split on the bench is something that will continue to divide opinion.

Just once in the past 11 encounters had the Australians got a victory against the English but inspired by the code-hopping Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who will be a global star of the game on this compelling evidence, they recovered from an early 3-15 battering to lead 20-18 at the interval.

They then built on that, moving 28-18 clear before Sleightholme’s double made it 28-30, setting up a grandstand finish.

Attack

146
Passes
182
122
Ball Carries
161
345m
Post Contact Metres
417m
6
Line Breaks
13

Andrew Kellaway’s breakaway try wrested back the lead for the Wallabies, Itoje then struck for the English but, once more, they were unable to hang onto the advantage, Jorgensen stealing it with the clock in the red. Here are the England player ratings:

15. George Furbank – 4.5 (out of 10)
Didn’t feature in attack as was hoped and it was disappointing that he didn’t better shut the door defensively for Australia’s two first half tries scored in the same corner. Sacrificed for George Ford with 18 minutes remaining, with Smith switching to full-back.

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14. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso – 4
A very quiet, truncated display in contrast to last weekend’s try-scoring finesse. Was in the first half wars with a HIA that he did return from, only for his final act to leave him looking defensively poor with Jeremy Williams diving in for a 50th minute try in the corner.

13. Ollie Lawrence – 8
Was heading for an even higher rating but was marked down after missing the poor Ford pass which led to the Kellaway try. Ran out in the No13 shirt but defended at inside and ran smart attacking lines all day off Smith’s promptings. An excellent effort.

12. Henry Slade – 5.5
Struggled in a defensive set-up that is now the remit of Joe El-Abd. Needed to be his team’s best defending back but was unable to provide that reliability.

11. Tommy Freeman – 5
Needed an upgrade after his slow going effort versus New Zealand, but it didn’t really happen. Failed to spot Slade for a try chance at 15-3. Contested some kicks but that was about the height of it.

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10. Marcus Smith – 8
Superb in attack, his dinked kicks in behind the defence were responsible for creating a couple of tries. Led the second-half fightback and kicked lovely off the tee. However, even he was fallible, as unfortunately seen in the last try concession when Len Ikitau’s classy one-handed offload left him stranded.

9. Ben Spencer – 5.5
Showed attacking skills early on; look at his pass off the floor to the supporting Freeman. But his display then got bogged down, something not helped by his early second-half box-kicking and not doing enough to tackle the try-scoring Williams into touch. Exited on 62.

1. Ellis Genge – 7.5
Was up for this and did well in his 62-minute contribution. Involved in the early Chandler Cunningham-South tries, offloading in the move for the first and quickly tapping the penalty for the second. Two scrum penalties added to his effort, but there ultimately wasn’t a winning reward.

2. Jamie George – 4
Gone on 51 minutes with his team losing, England have got a real leadership question to ponder. At France 2023, the hooker was deemed irreplaceable but that has changed. Had a high tackle count but not the impact that was needed to stop an eye-catching Australian resurgence.

3. Will Stuart – 7
His 69-minute involvement saw him feature high up his team’s tackle chart and his set-piece was also decent. England has just gone back in front when he was called ashore.

4. Maro Itoje – 8
Finished with a whopping 22 tackles and thought he had scored the game-clinching try with a brilliant 78th-minute finish from close range. However, he couldn’t help shut the lid and to see the lead out, knocking in from the Australian restart.

5. George Martin – 7
Topped his team’s first-half tackle count and ended up third highest, but that industry was dented by getting left wrong-footed by Tate McDermott sniping at a ruck to set-up Harry Wilson’s try. A second half turnover at the Aussie 22 was also costly. Taken off on the hour.

6. Chandler Cunningham-South – 7.5
Superb start in which he dived over untouched in one corner to get the scoreboard ticking and then burrowed over to add a second with Aussie defenders clinging onto him. We loved the enthusiasm of his celebrations but they were sadly proven to be premature.

7. Tom Curry – 5
Has to be most cursed player in the English game as regards injury setbacks. Had gone well until the crowd oohed when sent tumbling by Angus Bell. Then there was a deathly silence as his next involvement was getting his head on the wrong side of a tackle on Rob Valetini, ending his day after less than 23 minutes. More time on the pitch and he would likely have rated very high.

8. Ben Earl – 7
So much of England’s go-forward in the last 15 months has been through him. While he began here by giving Cunningham-South a fifth-minute try assist, the ball was a first half stranger to him as defence was where he shone. Came more out of his attacking shell in the second.

Replacements:
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie – 6
First cap in two years, he helped to up the ante after George found the going had gotten that bit too tough. Gassed by Jorgensen’s run to the line, but it wasn’t his error.

17. Fin Baxter – 6.5
The youngster showed his engine following his 62nd minute arrival. Another step forward in his development.

18. Dan Cole – 6
Sent on with England having just gone 30-28 up, he produced a better cameo than last weekend.

19. Nick Isiekwe – 6.5
Followed up his blink and you missed cameo versus New Zealand by playing just over 20 minutes here. Worked hard to get his team in front twice in that hectic finale.

20. Alex Dombrandt – 6.5
The 23rd-minute sub for Curry certainly wasn’t a like-for-like replacement, but his highlight was giving Sleightholme the pass to level it up at 28-all.

21. Harry Randall – 6
England needed energy and he delivered it. Improved from a week ago but it still wasn’t enough.

22. George Ford – 4
Last week’s appearance was a horror and he again unfortunately influenced the defeat here, his ill-advised and poorly executed pass to Lawrence going astray to allow Kellaway hoover up the gift. There has to be a debate as to why he was sent on at out-half when Smith had momentum in that role.

23. Ollie Sleightholme – 6.5
Came on twice in the opening half as a HIA replacement before coming on permanently on 50 minutes. Excellently finished his two tries, illustrating why he was last season’s Gallagher Premiership top try scorer, but the painful kicker getting defensively exposed for a couple of Australian tries, including the end-game clincher.

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Comments

29 Comments
M
MakeOllieMathisAnAB 10 days ago

England needs to throw more emphasis into attacking rugby, they’ve got the talent and willingness in the players. A number of times they just didnt go wide when it was absolutely on to do so.

L
Lulu 11 days ago

Did not see that one coming. Hopefully not a false dawn for the Wallabies. I was wrong about Saulii at outside centre. Thought the Poms would have exploited that channel more.

T
Tom 10 days ago

England exploit the 13 channel? You really think we can pass the ball 3 times without dropping it?

J
JW 11 days ago

Great game. Well played England, came out firing and brought that intensity we saw in NZ but which was missing last week. Came up against a Wallabies team that was just better on the day, and which has been getting better game after game.

G
GP 11 days ago

I think Steve Borthwick should hold himself responsible for Tom Curry's injury and George Ford's performances. Why are you shoving these players into Test match rugby when they haven't played rugby for months?

I'm sure he will try combinations like Ted Hill at 6, Ben Earl at 7 and CCS at 8. I don't think that's England's best option, but at some point he'll probably do it. Why not do it now, when players like Curry shouldn't be involved?

He's boring, and I don't know if this is going to last.

K
KiwiSteve 11 days ago

Tom Curry should not be near an England shirt. He is a liability to himself and the team. If he isn't getting red cards for lunatic tackles he is doing the most dangerous tackles to himself. For his own sake he should retire from rugby and maybe he has a chance to avoid dementia. He's the next rugby player to get Motor Neurones if he carries on.

K
KiwiSteve 11 days ago

George in the post match interview maintained confidence and conviction in the defence coaching, approach and strategy. 35 missed tackles.

T
Tom 11 days ago

It is quite a challenge to be fair, FJ was developing a very strong defence for England. Now he's left and a new coach has been asked to come in and teach his system. Can't be easy... But what we saw today was shambolic. There's no excuse for that. We've already got an attack coach less ambitious than when Viktor Matfield was given the job for the Bulls and now it seems we've got an equally poor defence coach. This regime is toast. It's teetering on the edge about to collapse.

A
AA 11 days ago

Agreed .

. We have the players. Not the management .

They are being out coached time again .

Why the hell swap Spencer and Ford again .

Fords attempted pass behind Lawrence resulted in an Aussie try .

Not up to the pace of international rugby either Borthwick or Ford .

Too many forwards appeared to be struggling fitness wise.

The aussies ran England ragged at times .

In any other sport Borthwick would be gone .

The facilities England have and money etc is truly wasted on this management .

Shockingly poor .

J
JW 11 days ago

England aren't as good as you think.

B
Bull Shark 11 days ago

There are some fantastic managers/coaches out there that would do a great job at England.


When Felix Resigned - the writing was on the wall.

B
Bull Shark 11 days ago

England possess some fantastic players. But the good ones are all windgat and play as individuals. Which is why there can be individual moments of brilliance and England losing.


This England team is a mess.


Defence is nowhere. The Aussies made ground with ease. Missed tackles everywhere.


The Aussies were the better team all night long.

J
JW 11 days ago

And the Aussies have some fantastic players weve been waiting to click too. Every top team has some fantastic players, both teams in this game played very well in what will probably go down as the best game of the autumn window I'd imagine.


England aren't far behind the Irish in terms of letting their expectations get the better of them, looks like it's contagious?! 😜

T
Tom 11 days ago

Yep. England defence was horrific as predicted. We gifted so many points to Australia and deserved to lose. Slade moving to 12 gave us a bit more width in attack but the defence suffered for it. Losing Felix Jones was such a huge own goal.


Marcus Smith was the only back who provided any threat. Absolute insanity for Borthwick to bring Ford on again. I know Smith stayed on at fullback but why oh why would you swap your ten when he's been the best player on the pitch? Mental.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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