England humiliated by 14-man Australia
Australia 30 England 28
Alex Lowe
Saturday July 02 2022, 1.15pm, The Sunday Times
Eddie Jones had dismissed England’s humiliating defeat by the Barbarians as a practice match. Well, if it was a rehearsal for how to lose a game against a team reduced to 14 men for nearly an hour then it worked a treat. England were abject in Perth, defeated by Australia for the first time in nine attempts.
The RFU’s blind loyalty to Jones will be tested to the extreme now. Flashes of promise last autumn were sandwiched by successive Six Nations campaigns in which they managed just two wins out of five. Bill Sweeney, the chief executive, wasted no time in offering his backing to Jones; citing unseen “solid progress”.
Now this. Australia were disarray. They had lost Quade Cooper to injury before kick off and two more players — Tom Banks and Allan Alaalatoa — inside the opening half hour.
Darcy Swain, the lock, was then sent off for a head butt on Jonny Hill, with whom he had had a running feud — and yet England were humiliated. They lost having led 14-9 after 61 minutes courtesy of a try from Ellis Genge and Owen Farrell’s boot.
Australia bossed the final quarter with tries from Jordan Petaia, Folau Fainga’a and Pete Samu to seal the game. With the Test lost, England began to generate quick ball and finished with a flourish; Henry Arundell scored a brilliant solo try and Jack Van Poortvliet, his fellow debutant, touched down with the final play of the game.
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But do not be fooled by the final scoreline. This was far worse a performance than a two-point defeat. There can be no excuses for England, who had picked an encouraging team for this Test — but those signs of progress remain hidden.
There were some notable exceptions to the criticism — Ellis Genge, Billy Vunipola, Lewis Ludlam and Freddie Steward in particular — but England’s attack was again disjointed and scruffy. They conceded too many penalties and they crumbled mentally at a time when they needed to take control of the game.
The tour heads to Brisbane and then Sydney. If England are to head home as series winners, there needs to be a remarkable transformation.
This was only the third time England had lost to the Wallabies in 12 years, since they confounded rugby wisdom by demolishing the Australia scrum here in Perth in 2010 but still lost.
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Cooper had led England a merry dance that day but the first indication all was not right today was the sight of Australia’s fly half sitting under the posts five minutes before kick off.
He had suffered a calf injury in the warm-up, triggering a desperate late reshuffle. Noah Lolesio was promoted to start at fly half and James O’Connor was hauled out of a hospitality suite to sit on the bench.
The Wallabies experienced further upheaval 20 minutes into the game when Tom Banks, the full back, suffered a broken arm. He was followed down the tunnel five minutes later by Alaalatoa, the tight-head prop.
Then the defining flashpoint of the game. Hill, the England lock, received a yellow card for pulling Swain’s hair. As the two second rows separated, Swain connected with a fairly soft head-butt on Hill. The force, though, was irrelevant. It was a red card and Australia, having lost three men and with a loose-head prop — albeit a Test centurion James Slipper now on at tight head — were also down to 14 men.
It was defining because of how the two sides reacted. The next passage of play rather summed up England’s performance.
Australia had sacrificed a penalty give metres out, and a chance to draw level at 6-6, but England handed them back the opportunity, with Tom Curry driving in from the side of a ruck.
That the Wallabies had hung in there to be level at 6-6 by the interval was a noble effort. They were having to think on the fly, with Samu Kerevi, more commonly used as a bulldozing centre, taking over as their primary tactical kicker.
England had shown their attacking potential only in flashes. Genge and Vunipola drove them forward but the ball was slow and Danny Care, much to his frustration, was unable to put pace on the game.
This was only the second time that Smith and Farrell had played together. England’s most threatening moment was a flat pass on the gain-line from Farrell to Tom Curry, who cut past Len Ikitau.
Smith could have been put away for a try on Curry’s left shoulder but the flanker went right and Joe Marchant was halted by a superb tackle from Marika Koroibete.
Maro Itoje lunged for the line, Smith tried to jink past Koroibete and the Wallabies infringed, allowing Farrell to extend Englands advantage to 6-0, having put them into the lead after Curry had won a breakdown penalty in the sixth minute.
The Wallabies’ backs-against-the-wall mentality was reinforced by the Australia coaches in the changing room, with messages of “brutality, work ethic and optimism” drilled into the players by the coaches.
England, who replaced Curry with Ludlam at half time, gifted Australia the lead three minutes into the second period with another breakdown penalty before tightening up their approach; mauling their way through a seven-man Wallaby pack and over the line with Genge scoring.
A jinking run from Jack Nowell and a smart offload from Billy Vunipola earned England a lineout five metres from the Wallaby line — but this time their maul was halted and Michael Hooper pounced to win the turnover.
England kept the squeeze on and another breakdown penalty allowed Farrell, who had missed the earlier conversion, to open a five point lead. It was at this point that England had to keep their foot on Wallaby throats.
But Australia wiped out that lead in no time, with Petaia twisting over the line. James Slipper appeared to knock on in the build-up but it was not checked and Lolesio landed the pressure conversion to push Australia back into the lead with 14 minutes remaining.
England were reduced to 14 men again when Vunipola was shown yellow card for a shoulder to Hooper’s head. Vunipola was the secondary tackler and it was a passive but direct hit, with the referee deciding upon review to upgrade the sanction from penalty to a yellow.
England were in trouble. Steward scrambled to deny Petaia in the corner but from the lineout Fainga’a peeled off the back of a maul to score before Samu forced his way over to put Australia out of reach.
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