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Wallabies boss Rennie was asked what he saw as England's strengths

Dave Rennie gestures as he watches his players warm up ahead of the Autumn International friendly rugby union match between England and Australia at Twickenham Stadium (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is set to call on his full complement of overseas-based players when his side attempts to end the Eddie Jones curse later this year.

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England coach Jones is under intense pressure after finishing the Six Nations tournament with just two wins from five matches.

But if he does keep his job, he will enter the three-Test series against Australia in July knowing that he has a perfect 8-0 record against the Wallabies.

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Rennie played the straightest of bats when asked if Jones’ current woes as England coach were as bad as the English media are making it out to be.

“You know I don’t read the media,” Rennie replied.

But the Wallabies coach was more forthcoming when asked about England’s strengths.

“They’re a very big territory team. They’ll be fit as and they’ll work really hard for each other,” Rennie said.

“Their kick-sprint is probably the best in the world. (They have the) ability to kick and apply pressure and try to force errors.

“They’ll defend really well, they’ll bring a lot of line speed, and they’ll back their set piece.

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“Our job when the time comes will be to diffuse those. Our set piece will need to be really good. We’ll need to do a good job in the air, and try to win the kicking battle to play the right end of the field.”

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A change to eligibility rules means the Wallabies will be able to call up to three of their overseas-based stars to play in the series.

Rennie is yet to decide who they will be, but Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi and Rory Arnold will be among the frontrunners.

“We’ve got three options per series, so who will depend on where we’re at and the depth we have in certain spots and maybe even on injury,” Rennie said.

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“But I’m OK with that. We want the majority of the players coming from here.

“What we know is a number of those boys are on massive money and on our budget we can’t afford to bring them home, even though that would be the ideal, to get everyone back playing here.

“We will definitely, for the English series, have overseas influence.”

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Graeme 960 days ago

Bring back Korobete!

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Nickers 32 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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