England 13 Wallabies 33: Bernard Foley stars as Australia dump hosts out of Rugby World Cup
BERNARD Foley was a one-man executioner for England as a 28-point haul knocked the hosts out of the World Cup and booked Wallabies a finals berth.
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WALLABIES five-eighth Bernard Foley was a one-man executioner for England’s World Cup as a 28-point haul knocked the hosts out of the tournament and secure a finals berth.
Foley scored two tries and kicked a flawless seven goals for a record points tally, in a match where David Pocock was again brilliant and Australia turned the tables on the English at the scrum by annihilating them in the set-piece.
In front of 81,080 fans at Twickenham, England suffered the humiliation of being knocked out of contention to progress from pool A and into the playoffs, with one game still to play.
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Aware his job was on the line, England coach Stuart Lancaster looked grim post match but for opposing man Michael Cheika there were only broad smiles.
“It wasn’t perfect there were still a lot of areas I think we can improve on, and it is just another step along the way in the pool,” said Cheika.
“But its a very difficult pool so we are very pleased with the result obviously, in particular the commitment of the players. We will be asking for more of that as we go along.
”We really wanted it. We really wanted to play well and were really hungry. We knew there would be a lot of pain, because we are in England’s backyard. The atmosphere was very loud, and that’s not an easy thing to deal with. It’s like a tsunami and it really can lift them.”
The Wallabies turned on their best performance under Cheika and Foley was the man of the moment.
He scored two tries in the first half and helped Australia get out to a 20-3 lead with 30 minutes to play.
England mounted a fightback by scoring and drawing within seven points at 20-13, the Wallabies pushed away with two more Foley penalties in the last 10 minutes before Matt Giteau scored in the last minute to seal the win.
Foley’s personal points haul was the biggest ever between Australia and England, and it was the biggest winning margin by the Wallabies at Twickenham.
The scrum was a close second to Foley. At the same ground the Wallabies eight was humiliated less than a year ago, the scrum bossed England and it set up a famous win.
The Wallaby defence was immense, not giving any leeway to England and Pocock’s pestilence at the breakdown yet again made a huge difference.
The Wallabies led 17-0 at halftime after a dominant opening 40 minutes.
The game was barely a minute old when the first scrum battle was set, and referee Romain Poite found fault with Australia’s over-enthusiasm when they pushed too early.
Australia resisted the English charge though, cleared their half and immediately began to look dangerous in the hosts’ red-zone.
A probable try in the third minute went begging though when Israel Folau held the ball a fraction too long with Rob Horne unmarked outside him. A Mike Brown tackle smothered the threat.
Foley got first points soon after though when the Wallabies decided to convert pressure into banked points.
Horne went off with a shoulder injury in the 10th minute and England evened things up when Owen Farrell banged over a penalty in the 11th minute.
Showing good power in contact, Australia pushed back down into England’s half.
This time, after a sustained attacking period that saw 10-plus phases, an offload by Sekope Kepu helped stretch England’s defence and Foley slipped through the line outside Joe Launchbury.
He ran 15 metres and beat Brown and scored in the 19th minute.
England were struggling to get through Australia’s pliable defence and it was at this time the Pocock-Hooper effect began to take hold, with the No.8 in particular turning over possession several times.
The referee also began to take issue with England’s scrum, and the inward angling loose head Joe Marler. It was the tactic discussed all week and Australia’s scrum was rewarded twice for pushing straight.
The game see-sawed until six minutes before the break, when the Wallabies went on the attack again. This time a sharp change of angle from Foley saw him sweep right and find Kurtley Beale on the inside for a gap.
Foley trailed and moments later Beale drew the fullback and returned the favour for his no. 10, who scored again and added the conversion to make it 17 points next to his name.
England had never won a game trailing at halftime by such a margin and when Foley added another three points in the 49th minute following another penalty against Marler, things looked grim for the home side.
They brightened somewhat, however, when England finally pieced some phases together with George Ford on the field.
They took advantage of Folau rushing up on the second last man and Anthony Watson found a run to the line to the right corner to score.
England got their tails up for the last quarter.
When an errant pass from Nick Phipps saw Australia go back-tracking downfield, Farrell banged over another penalty in the 64th minute to set up a tense finale.
Two Foley penalties eased the tension before Giteau’s counter-attack try sealed the game in the 79th minute.
There was more good news for the Wallabies post match when it emerged that Israel Folau has only has a rolled ankle and should be fine for next weekend.
However, Rob Horne may have a more serious shoulder injury and Matt Giteau is nursing a sore sternum.
Originally published as England 13 Wallabies 33: Bernard Foley stars as Australia dump hosts out of Rugby World Cup
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