England’s 37-21 win over Wallabies ends horrid year for Michael Cheika’s men

EDDIE Jones has rubbed salt into Australia’s wounds after England won 37-21 by revealing that suggestions he made to improve the playing stocks when he was Wallabies coach were ignored.

Marland Yarde of England celebrates scoring his side’s second try.

EDDIE Jones has rubbed salt into Australia’s wounds after England won 37-21 overnight by revealing that suggestions he made to improve the playing stocks when he was Wallabies coach were ignored by the ARU.

England laughed last and loudest as Australia succumbed to defeat at Twickenham to finish a horrid year with nine defeats from 15 Tests.

In stark contrast, Jones’ side finish 2016 unbeaten in 13 Tests and on a 14-game winning streak, highlighting the rapidly turning fortunes of both sides since Australia bundled England out of the World Cup pool stages last year.

Jones said afterward that he was no longer concerned by the state of the game in Australia.

“It’s not really my responsibility, when I was Australian coach I gave them advice on what they should have done and they didn’t listen so I’m not going to give them advice now,” Jones said.

“There’s always skeletons behind old closed doors.”

A week of sniping between Jones and Wallabies coach Michael Cheika ended with the former holding a 4-0 record against the latter this year, and Jones could barely hide his glee.

Marland Yarde of England celebrates scoring his side’s second try.

“To beat the third best country in the world four-nil is fantastic, don’t you reckon?” Jones said.

Cheika’s frustrations with referee Jaco Peyper could be clearly seen during the game, and Peyper’s decision to sin-bin winger Dane Haylett-Petty for innocuous contact with Mike Brown was unjustified.

Peyper also missed a forward pass in the lead-up to Marland Yarde’s crucial early try in the second half.

But in the end, England were simply superior, which Cheika acknowledged.

“There were obviously a few decision that we wouldn’t have agreed with, but in the overall context of the game we needed to work out how we were going to break their momentum in the second half,” Cheika said.

“They play a relatively pressure, conservative style to put you under pressure and we know that, to score off your errors. And we did that giving away a couple of tries off a dropped ball and a quick tap, turned our backs which is unforgivable.

“Even with a few decisions like that, with all those included, we had opportunities to break the momentum but we made errors and it costs.”

Jonathan Joseph of England breaking through to score his side’s fourth try.

Where the Wallabies had all the momentum in the first 20 minutes of the game, they managed one try and were held up twice over the line.

When the tide was with England at the start of the second half, they scored two tries and wrested control of the game away.

Australia led 16-13 at the break but two tries in the first 10 minutes of the second half blew the game open for England.

Scott Sio was penalised early for collapsing a scrum, and in the 45th minute England winger Yarde crossed in the corner.

Jonathan Joseph put in a grubber and Yarde beat Israel Folau to the ball.

The man-of-the-match Ben Youngs took a quick tap from a penalty close to Australia’s line and dummied past Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley to score another.

Owen Farrell kicked his sixth goal to put England 30-16 ahead with 23 minutes remaining and the Wallabies were on the ropes.

Sekope Kepu scored an impressive try out wide, but a late Joseph intercept try sealed Australia’s fate.

Australia led by three at half-time having been up 10-0 after just 16 minutes.

Foley had a shot at goal in the second penalty after Peyper pinged off-side England players, but he pushed a regulation attempt 35 metres out in front of the posts wide.

Tevita Kuridrani was denied his Grand Slam try minutes later when Farrell and Brown both fumbled a grubber into the in-goal by Haylett-Petty, though chasing tackler Pocock knocked on just before Kuridrani grounded the ball.

However, the Wallabies won the ensuing scrum off England’s feed, and quickly spread the ball to winger Sefanaia Naivalu who sprinted through to score the first try that Foley converted from the sideline.

The Wallabies then had England under siege.

Kepu was held up over the line by George Kruis, and two minutes later Kuridrani was held up by Joseph as England absorbed wave after wave of attack.

Foley kicked a penalty goal before England was finally on the board in the 19th minute via a Farrell penalty.

The Wallabies still had the momentum but five minutes later the match turned on its head. Folau made a searing break towards the line but as he was pulled down the ball bounced clear from the ruck and England regathered.

They passed wide and George Ford made a 40 metre break downfield before kicking ahead for Yarde, though Haylett-Petty managed to ground the ball in Australia’s in-goal.

Farrell kicked another penalty in the 28th minute to make it 10-6, and two minutes later scored a try against the run of play to hit the lead.

Australia was attacking before Kepu spilt a Phipps pass which was kicked ahead by Farrell.

England centre Joseph raced after the ball and it bounced into his arms as he ran away from the despairing dive of Foley to score.

But Foley managed to kick two penalties late in the half to wrest the lead back for Australia.

Originally published as England’s 37-21 win over Wallabies ends horrid year for Michael Cheika’s men