England v Australia: Winners and losers as Steve Borthwick offers ‘show of faith’ in young forward as Bomb Squad use proves a ‘great trick’
England's bomb squad and Guy Pepper were among the big winners from England's win over the Wallabies
Following England’s 25-7 win over Australia at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, here are our key winners and losers from the opening Test of the Autumn Nations Series.
Winners
Ben Earl
There’s been a lot of chat about the England number eight shirt following Tom Willis’ impending Top 14 move, but Ben Earl emphatically silenced that yesterday. The Saracens man was electric in all aspects of his game in England’s win, leading the way for both carries and metres gained before his departure.
We all know Earl can play eight, notably shining in that role in Borthwick’s early tenure, but there were still doubts over him ahead of this Test. Willis’ form since returning to the Test side last year suggested England were looking for a more traditional battering ram at the bookend of the scrum, and it was working too, but Earl showed he can blend those gritty carries in the tight with his typical explosive efforts in broken field too, which will please the England boss no end.
England Bomb Squad
The Springboks have perfected the Bomb Squad tactic in recent years, but England showed they can also get it spot on. Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Tom Curry and Henry Pollock – all British and Irish Lions tourists this summer – came on at a pretty sticky period in the game for the hosts, with momentum shifting towards the visitors, but they quickly rectified matters for Borthwick’s side.
Their introduction helped England change tactics, turning towards a more close-quarters barrage through the maul and tight carries around the breakdown. In turn, that powered the hosts to a second-half shutout.
Borthwick has been pretty open with his thinking around the bench, even teasing that he could turn to a 7/1 split at some point, but deploying his big guns from the bench could be a great trick moving forward.
Guy Pepper
England are spoiled for choice in the back-row, meaning if you’re given a shot in the 23, you have to take it. Guy Pepper did exactly that.
The Bath back-rower was immense all afternoon, helping set the tone for his side up-front. He notched a total of 16 tackles across his 80-minute shift, only beaten by Jamie George’s 20 on the day, and grabbed a turnover for good measure as well.
Around that, too, giving him a full 80 felt like a real sign of faith from the England boss.
Steve Borthwick
This was yet another sign England have taken a sharp turn in the past year.
England’s big question this time last year was if they can close out games, after losing leads in three of their four November Tests. If this game has happened this time last year, they might have lost this too, but they actually ran away with it in the final quarter.
Turning narrow losses into wins has been the story of England’s year in 2025, but this is yet another improvement on that. Turning narrow wins into big wins.
It also just shows Borthwick the depth he has at his disposal. Northampton clubmates Fraser Dingwall and Tommy Freeman partnered together in midfield for just the second time at Test level, disposing the likes of Henry Slade, Ollie Lawrence and Max Ojomoh in the process, while Tom Roebuck also showed his Test credentials, continuing where he left off in the summer.
There is still more to come from this England side, but it’s a great start to the Autumn Nations Series and it’s a win that proves how far they’ve come in the past 12 months.
Harry Potter
A really complete performance from the Wallabies winger, dropping arguably his best display in the gold jersey in his Test career to date. He made a real difference on both sides of the ball, notably denying Ben Earl a certain try in the first-half and nabbing himself a lovely intercept score moments later.
Wing is an increasingly competitive position for Australia, with Max Jorgensen commanding a starting role in the 14 shirt it leaves Potter, Dylan Pietsch and Corey Toole fighting for a spot in the starting XV, but if this performance is anything to go off it could be the Waratahs-bound back’s shirt to lose.
Losers
Wallabies bench
While the England Bomb Squad might have impressed, their Wallabies counterparts also didn’t step up to the plate. The game felt in the balance around the time of the England bench’s entry, but that turned out to be the turning point in the game.
While they weren’t deployed in the same way, the Wallabies bench just simply couldn’t handle their opposite numbers, and that eventually let England run away with the win.
You would think if Joe Schmidt wants to make changes to his 23-man squad for next weekend’s trip to Italy, he could look to the bench first.
Tane Edmed
You felt a player who really missed a chance to nail down his spot in the Wallabies run-on side is Edmed, who just didn’t take the chance afforded to him.
Australia are in a tough spot at fly-half right now, with nobody really sticking their hand up to be the starting option long-term, so this did feel like Edmed’s chance to do that. He started off pretty well, but when it came down to it he couldn’t kick his side into life.
He is clearly built in that old-school fly-half mould, often standing deep and just distributing to those around him, but throughout the Lions series and the Rugby Championship, the Wallabies excelled when they had someone willing to play flat to the line and threaten ball-in-hand at 10.
If he wants to keep his place in the side, especially now with Carter Gordon back in the mix, he could be forced to change his style to suit the system.
Joe Schmidt
This felt like a big step backwards from the Wallabies, and that will infuriate the head coach. Throughout the 2025 Test season, Australia have shown real signs of improvement, built on the back of what they did last year too.
That is probably more of a reflection of where they have been this season to date, after all they beat the British and Irish Lions and the Springboks in successive Tests and had a very genuine chance of winning the Rugby Championship after four rounds too, but there just wasn’t the same feel about them against England.
At times they had England under the cosh, led by their brilliant back-row, but then they couldn’t quite piece things together in the backline and eventually found themselves being driven back up-front as the game went on.
They will likely want to make a big response against Italy next weekend, before taking on Ireland and France, but it’s not the performance they would have hoped for today.