Stronger: Adam Ashley-Cooper
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A powerful performance from Australia led to a 20-14 victory over England at Twickenham, with Berrick Barnes kicking 15 points.
In front of a packed crowd at Twickenham, England opened the scoring with a penalty from Toby Flood with two minutes gone, but it was Australia who held the edge early on in terms of territory and possession.
The Wallabies were on top in the opening scrums and it proved to be the foundation for Australia's first score of the afternoon as Michael Hooper burst through on the left hand side, Berrick Barnes eventually sending through a drop-goal from straight in front.
Australia continued to play with width, Nick Cummins giving the English defence cause for concern as he continued to find space down the right wing.
Flood put England back in front with a long-range penalty but Australia responded by putting the home side under pressure deep on their own try line, the TMO ruling out a score after looking at numerous replays.
A penalty at the resulting scrum however led to Barnes levelling the scores from straight in front, but Flood responded to take the score to 9-6.
Cummins then grabbed the first try of the afternoon after a poor box kick from Danny Care led to a break from Australian scrum-half Pat Phipps, who slipped through a gap in England's defence and fed an unmarked Cummins for the score.
It was England however who had grabbed the final points of the first half, a tapped penalty by Care putting Australia on the back foot before the ball went wide to Manu Tuilagi.
The Leicester centre dived and allegedly did enough to ground the ball on the line, putting England back in front and leaving the score at 14-11 at half-time.
Barnes drew both teams level at the start of the second half and then put the Wallabies in front after a perfectly weighted chip behind the defence from Beale was gathered by Hooper, leading to another penalty kick to give Australia a 14-17 lead.
The Wallabies regained possession from the restart and a break from Tapuai almost released Cummins on the outside again only for Sharples to intervene. Australia's dominance at the breakdown resulted in England being penalised, with Barnes stretching the visitors lead to six points.
An English response was needed and it came with a powerful surge towards the Australian try-line, the hosts launching a series of driving mauls towards the Wallaby line, Thomas Waldrom going close but knocking on as he dived for the score.
The home crowd did their best to lift England's performance but the error count continued to rise as Australia controlled the breakdown and the scrum, winning yet another penalty which Barnes failed to convert from long-range.
A tapped penalty from replacement Ben Youngs brought the crowd to their feet as England persisted to go for the try rather than taking the points on offer, but Australia again turned over possession, stifling England's momentum.
It was a similar story for the rest of the second half as Australia dominated the breakdown, repelling a series of attacks from the home side deep into their own 22 but emerging on top on every occasion, to clinch an important victory for coach Robbie Deans.
Man of the match: Who needs David Pocock? Openside Michael Hooper had a fine afternoon.
Moment of the match: After sustained pressure, Thomas Waldrom just couldn't get the ball down.
Villain of the match: Not a memorable afternoon for Joe Marler at the scrum, the Harlequin struggling against Ben Alexander.
The scorers:
For England:
Try: Tuilagi
Pens: Flood 3
For Australia:
Try: Cummins
Pens: Barnes 4
Drop Goal: Barnes
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Charlie Sharples, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Mike Brown.
Australia: 15 Berrick Barnes, 14 Digby Ioane, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dave Dennis, 5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Brett Sheehan, 22 Mike Harris, 23 Drew Mitchell.
Comments
davodiablo says...
Come get your England jersey ...all the sizes and all the colours. The coaches and jersey change but the rugby is still the same. Get some pride England , start picking Englishmen and wear the white jersey.
As for the "bankers in wax jackets" at twickers who boo every decision that goes the other way or cheer the oppositions mistakes , you do the real fans no favours.
Posted 09:37 18th November 2012
Trinats2 says...
Great to see our scrum do well (again) I guess the Poms didn't see it in the RC and just the French game, hence talking themselves up. On the RC, Eng have SA next week, who finished below Australia and only drew with Arg. so there is hope for a win.
Tapuai had a great game, funny how he was only in there because of injury to McCabe (hint hint Deans) and on Deans, why did he not get TPN off the field when he was knocked out ??? nearly cost us points.
Still heaps of work to do, missing a game breaker (Giena or Cooperman) we were lucky with the forward pass for Cummins try, that said Alexander looked to have ground the ball which was ruled held up.
A win over the poms is always sweet, and with a 2nd string side (6 starters missing) in the Poms backyard, looking good for our full side aaginst the Lions next year.
A win and back to 2nd in the rankings will keep Deans in a job for another week !! What will italy hold ?
Posted 09:33 18th November 2012
Honestpom says...
@leinster-gov, sorry mate, i was serious ! I honestly think he gets it right and is very consistent there. I'm a proud Englishman but he was spot on every time he pinged us in the scrum yesterday. The way everyone disagrees just proves what a difficult area it is.
Posted 09:14 18th November 2012
connaughtabu says...
Good win Australia and congratulations to the Aus tacticians, you completely outplayed and outthought your English opposite numbers. I'm a neutral but fellow NH fan, so Eng fans, don't take offence.
The English game plan was based on forward dominance, mauls and driving/bashing up the middle by the big boys - penalties and tries would follow. The whole plan came unstuck at the first scrum, when the frontrow was soundly thumped. Youngs & Marier could not live with Nau & Alexander - why? Marier's scumming and/or Youngs size? Aus maintained front row dominance by replacing all 3. With Sharpe in team, line outs were no prob.
The 2nd problem area is that Eng play without an open side flanker. Robshaw is a big strong boy but he ain't no fetcher. When it came to the breakdown, Hooper was there 1st and often the Aussies were able to drive the Eng off the ball. In the first half, Beale used the chip/grubber kick effectively. This space behind the centres is either for the FB or No7 to cover - in old days Neil Back would have been there and McCaw most certainly be there! Robshaw was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps a true No7 might be an option?
Eng were unlucky on occasions, would not have expected Care and replacement to spill so many balls. Time and again, advantages gained were turned over which was disheartening for the pack.
Individually and as a group the Aus backs were better, aggressive in defence and inventive in attack. When Beale had ball in hand, one never knew what would happen next - a gem of a player!
So fellow Lions fans, 2 things were sorted out yesterday:
1. The Wallabies will be no pushover
2. Loins victory will not be based simply on English muscle.
Roll on next week!
:-))
Posted 08:52 18th November 2012
froggy73 says...
@jonesy2: funny you are calling me a sore loser. I thing I need to remind you something. 33-6, doesn't this ring a bell ?
Now regarding your lists of players, your are bringing on a list of players randomly and you obviously don't know what a 4rth string team means despite your mother tongue being English. Is your list made of key players only ? No. Are Australia the only team to miss players through injuries ? No. Does anyone like you on here ? No
I don't even know why I am waiting my time writing back to you. Unlike l'Oréal, you're not worth it.
Posted 08:35 18th November 2012
ferdie says...
The purple jersey is England's official change strip.
It is officially 'regal purple with gold trim' to represent England's standing as rugby royalty.
It is their fifth colour change since 2007 - all marketing, fans 'must have' this year's model, like the football teams who change every year.
Replicas and supporters gear from Canterbury in the same colour have been available online thru Amazon etc for some time.
Why they wore it for this match can only be down to marketing from their sponsor Canterbury. When I saw it I thought the sponsor may have been Cadbury chocolate it looks more like their wrapper colours.
I was predicting a Jimi Hendrix 'purple haze' but I see a major English daily news site has called the team/game 'purple daze'.
We can only look forward to the next year's version. Gold and green perhaps?
Posted 07:58 18th November 2012
rugbylover says...
Oh you bewdies! Sigh. Judicious use of the chip-kick thwarts the rush defence. Congratulations Australia - well deserved & well done Robbie Deans.
Posted 07:55 18th November 2012
liam2me says...
Embarrassing
Posted 06:58 18th November 2012
Ramage says...
@jonesy2 Of course it was a try and you are stretching belief to say it wasnt.
@OupaJ you want to know why England played with a swedish flag on their collar> I want to know why they played in those awful maroon jersies and shorts. I thought the England Jersies were white with the Red Rose so just what are theu up to as their is no clash of colours between whitw and yellow.
Well done Oz and back to the drawing board for England.
Posted 06:56 18th November 2012
Rayz says...
Australia need to thank Campese and all the other detractors for giving them this win. Best motivation ever!
Posted 05:48 18th November 2012
Wallaroo says...
@jonesy2 having pride is one thing and honour is another thing altogether. Pride and honour equals humility while pride alone leads to arrogance. Please exercise both if you want to represent Australia otherwise stick with your origins, New Zealand. Although I'm sure you'll find they'll also expect you to exercise both.
Posted 05:34 18th November 2012
bigb6969 says...
Points equals pressure. Why would you not kick a penalty when you are just 6 behind with 20 mins to go. Also 3 points behind stops a team from pushing it so much in defence.
Posted 03:40 18th November 2012
Wallaroo says...
So good to bounce back, although I didn't think either team played well Australia definitely improved on last week and will continue in the same vain.
Our scrum was so much better which is great too.
Long live the Wallaby.
Posted 03:33 18th November 2012
jonesy2 says...
froggy73 -- yes 4th string in many places, how would you even know? you ingoramus. genia, white, horwill, simmons, douglas, higginbotham, mccalman, pocock, shipperley, turner, cooper, oconnor and im probably missing some. mate australia's current injury list is better than england's hall of fame
Posted 03:16 18th November 2012
jonesy2 says...
ben7, Terry_English, froggy73 -- have a cry you sore losers. how do those sour grapes taste? sour i bet.
take a leaf from heart_of_oak and Honestpom-- they know whats going on.
this match report is funny, its so short its almost like it was written by a teary-eyed pom at 4 in the morning...
Posted 03:05 18th November 2012
rugby_phile says...
To all by Aussie "Deans" hating friends. See what happens when your team actually scrums and passes? Which should be a given at this level anyway. Well done.
To all my pommie friends, don't know what to make of your lot, one step forward, one back and on and on and standing still. Your team really confuses me, but something is not right. Lets see what happens in the next 2 games.
And to both sets, no winging, neither try was a try, so it didn't affect the outcome.
Posted 02:50 18th November 2012
Fitzy says...
The one that got away for the English me thinks and that's coming from an Aussie.You have to hand it to our lads though,written off by all and sundry they certainly showed plenty of character to get the chocolates at Twickenham.I'm losing paitence with Polota Nau.I really want him to do well but he just keeps making errors by losing the ball in contact and wayward lineout throwing.His errors could have really hurt us today.Top marks for me go to Nick Cummins for an absolute stormer on the wing.In fact,the whole backline were excellent except for a couple of aimless kicks in the last 20 mins that handed the hosts plenty of opportunity to win the game.The mind boggles as to what they were thinking
Posted 02:41 18th November 2012
Waz4before says...
Andy 1000 - on what planet was manus a double movement, i had the "pleasure" of Australian commentators and even they didn't raise the question of a double movement. Think you need to refer to the rules. The TV angle made the Australian pass for their try look forward but given the ref was right in line it's doubtful it was.
England now need to show progress - this was in the main the first 20 minutes against Fiji but played over 80 minutes and there's question makes over at least 2 or 3 players now (which is ok, SL needs to know who's in his first 22+ and this will have helped). It's doubtful they'll win either of the next two so come the start of the 6ns they will be in a very dark place and Lancaster's going to need to know who can cope with that and still perform.
As for Oz, another down one week, up the next performance - almost as unpredictable as Wales in knowing what you're going to get. But they played well, back to the All Black game in Brisbane as opposed to the Paris surrender of last week. Be interesting to see what happens to them over the next two weeks
Posted 01:58 18th November 2012
georgesmith says...
M. Hooper is the next big thing.
Posted 01:22 18th November 2012
passtheball says...
Aus look like getting their combinations right in the backline. Don't think they need Cooper back as Barnes is doing well with the kicking and at FB and Beale has FH sorted. Good win for Deans. Hooper and new comers are looking good for the future too. Any team can be thrashed in France when the mood is on.
Ironic to hear Eng commentator mention that Hooper had an English Dad, Uncle and Grandparents - one that got away eh?
Posted 00:37 18th November 2012