Wallabies v England: Jones needs dramatic change to win

More of the same, from England’s perspective, will result in an Australian win tonight.

England coach Eddie Jones will be looking for his players to create fast ball up front to create an attacking platform for his backs.

More of the same, from England’s perspective, will result in an ­Australian win tonight.

Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper respected England’s effort in Brisbane, but not a whole lot. “They pressured us for the duration of the game but (I) wouldn’t say they did anything that blew us away,” he said.

Australia will improve from their effort. It was their first time together since the World Cup final. They knew there would be errors; there were just too many.

Yet the mistakes that cost them their lead, gained in that lightning-strike first 15 minutes, were the type that can and should be rectified. A grinding English effort ended in Australia conceding penalties, but these were not the result of a constant suffocating pressure, just dumb Australian play. ­England managed to play the ­latter part of the first half — the quarter of the game in which the match swung — with patience, possession and territory, though not much real pressure.

England’s control of the ball helped them stifle what had been an at times irresistible Australian offensive. Attack is a good form of defence. Without the ball, the Wallabies aided the English cause by conceding soft penalties, almost own goals. The opportunities for Owen Farrell shifted the game from the hosts. The disciplinary dilemma is one that Michael Cheika should have no particular problem fixing. Minus the drip, drip effect of Farrell’s boot, Australia’s four tries to three could have prevailed.

The same old, same old will not be enough. In the words of ­Hooper, Eddie Jones’s team will have to “blow them away”. Apposite words too, words that might yet have a big impact on Hooper’s game. For Jones is targeting huge improvements in the breakdown, an area Australia might just think England were content with. The leak of turnovers witnessed in the World Cup was stanched. England even nicked two turnovers in their own 22 early in the game.

The breakdown didn’t break down as it did at Twickenham, but it didn’t do as Jones would have liked. It didn’t do the positive bits with the speed and accuracy he is after. When we talk breakdowns we tend to talk turnovers. The measurement of a team is the number of turnovers won, the number not conceded. On that count, England did well in Brisbane.

However, Jones is looking at the other side of the equation. While England did some fantastic defensive work at the breakdown, there was a lack of intensity when attacking. Maybe the presence of David Pocock was a significant factor. The world’s best poacher of possession is a good enough reason for a side to adopt a cautious approach to the tackle area.

There’s one hell of a difference between “securing” breakdown ball and winning quick ball. Eng­land do the former well; they struggle with the latter. The former requires the first man in after the tackle and tackler to get to the scene and use his body to block the game’s great breakdown magpies. The latter requires them to blast the opposition out the way.

Only then can the attacking team play at a pace and intensity to cause opposition the sort of mayhem Jones wants to make. At ­present the ball frequently nestles near the tackler, the Australian opponent competing enough to slow possession down, a small victory for the defender.

Seconds tick with the ball on the floor; as time elapses the defence repositions itself and the opportunity for attack diminishes. It is an endless circle of slow frustration, a dance England have been doing for more than a decade. Australia do not expect any sort of new formation from a team so familiar and comfortable with such cautious rugby.

Amid all Jones’s verbal antics, he is not averse to telling it as it is and when on Monday he mentioned the improvement needed at the breakdown he was not playing his little games. He was nailing a fundamental flaw, identifying the element of the England game most in need of improvement.

In the northern hemisphere, referees are stricter on players going off their feet to smash opponents off the ball. Craig Joubert is an empathetic referee who will take the side of the team trying to play at pace, outside the law or not. That is the way rugby has evolved in Australia and New Zealand.

There is an opportunity for ­England to play at a pace rarely seen in the northern hemisphere. The shock of it might just be enough to blow Australia and Hooper away.

The Times