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Wallabies soar as England fold again in Twickenham thriller

By PA
Max Jorgensen scores the winning try - PA

England collapsed to another agonising late defeat in their Autumn Nations Series when Max Jorgensen struck three minutes into overtime to snatch a 42-37 victory for Australia at Allianz Stadium.

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Marcus Smith appeared to have orchestrated a successful fightback for Steve Borthwick’s side by creating two tries for Ollie Sleightholme, only for a rollercoaster climax to leave him thumping the pitch in despair.

It seemed as though England had finally prevailed when Maro Itoje surged over in the 77th minute to cancel out Andrew Kellaway’s breakaway try two minutes earlier, but the swashbuckling Wallabies were not done.

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Bok centre Andre Esterhuizen reflects on only having 18 Test caps to his name

Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen turned 30 earlier this year, but he only has 18 Test caps to his name.

Video Spacer

Bok centre Andre Esterhuizen reflects on only having 18 Test caps to his name

Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen turned 30 earlier this year, but he only has 18 Test caps to his name.

With the match about to enter its 83rd minute, they engineered the opportunity for Jorgensen to score with rugby league superstar Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i involved as part of a classy union debut.

It was a cruel finish but England paid the price for a poor defensive display and they have lost both of their autumn games so far after falling 24-22 to New Zealand a week earlier.

Fixture
Internationals
England
37 - 42
Full-time
Australia
All Stats and Data

South Africa are the next visitors to Twickenham in seven days’ time but that grudge match must be tackled without Tom Curry, the all-action openside who was knocked out when tackling Rob Valetini.

Play was held up for several minutes while Curry received treatment and the Sale forward was eventually able to walk from the field but now faces a 12-day stand down period.

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Australia’s initial comeback coincided with his departure in the 23rd minute and England were also disrupted by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso being led off with half an hour to go after suffering a head injury while tackling Jeremy Williams.

Helped by England’s shortcomings in defence the Wallabies, ranked ninth in the world, were excellent once they had recovered from a poor start that saw England score after just four minutes.

England Australia
Jake Gordon – PA

Smith’s low kick was gathered by Ollie Lawrence and when the ball was recycled the home forwards sprung into action with Jamie George, Ellis Genge and Ben Earl combining to set up Chandler Cunningham-South.

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A Noah Lolesio penalty interrupted their momentum until Smith propelled them forward again with a sharp break, creating the opportunity for Cunningham-South to crash over from a free-kick.

Curry departed following his collision with Valetini and moments later the Wallabies showed their cutting edge in a 26th-minute try by Tom Wright made possible by Sua’ali’i drawing George Furbank and Sleightholme before finding his full-back with a no-look pass over the top.

Two penalties from Smith kept England in the driving seat but their swagger was fading and Australia were the next to strike by exploiting a fractured home defence for Harry Wilson to touch down, with Tate McDermott the creator.

McDermott, who had replaced starting scrum-half Jake Gordon, was the catalyst as the Wallabies continued on the rampage and after they almost scored again Lolesio landed a penalty to give them an interval lead.

Australia’s growing domination continued into the second half with lock Williams completing an acrobatic finish in the left corner in the 49th minute and when Lolesio was on target with a penalty they were 10 points ahead.

England Australia
A dejected Marcus Smith – PA

It needed England to hit back quickly and they did so when Smith’s grubber was touched down by Sleightholme, who soon after took an elbow to the head and had to compose himself.

Smith was moved to full-back to accommodate George Ford’s arrival but his desire to play persisted as he sent Lawrence charging into space for Sleightholme to cross again.

The closing moments spiralled into an exchange of tries that thrilled the crowd but ended with England’s players holding their heads in disbelief.

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Comments

7 Comments
F
Flankly 10 days ago

Eddie Jones was the guy that wanted to fundamentally re-invent English test rugby, because he felt it was stuck in a rut that ensured they were always competitive but never dominant. The RFU didn't like that new-fangled stuff, and were not prepared to endure a painful metamorphosis. So they placed their bets on the traditional route, with Borthwick leading the show.


Two years later we should be seeing England executing well in the traditional English areas of strength. We should see a fearsome pack, great set pieces, solid defence, good territorial play, reliable goal kicking, good discipline, excellent ball retention, and all of that. We should see the fancy pants ball-playing teams struggle against meat and potatoes English belligerence.


Instead we see an English team that is nowhere near being great at the basics. The fact that they are losing is not great, but the fact that after two years of this coaching set up they can't deliver on the basics is a major indictment on the coaching set up. It's not an entirely fair comparison, but worth noting that less than two years into his coaching stint Rassie won the RWC.


England should have good foundations by now.

N
Ninjin 11 days ago

Always nice to see the English lose.

J
Jen 11 days ago

WAAAHOOOO. Very happy for our Aussie cousins.

G
GrahamVF 11 days ago

Joined by South African second cousins. Haven't seen that much excitement in my living room watching a rugby game since the WC final.

T
TI 11 days ago

Welcome back, Wallabies. We’ve missed you. That’s some proper team you’ve beaten.


And boy is Joseph Suaalii something special.

J
Jen 11 days ago

He's going to be an exciting player.

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JW 2 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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