Jones hails England's fighting spirit
By Steve Grace
13/11/21
England extended their winning run against Australia under Eddie Jones to eight matches, but they had to dig deep for a 32-15 victory at Twickenham that was the first real test of the new era promised by their head coach.
For all their possession and territory, England - who included the Exeter Chiefs trio of Jonny Hill, Henry Slade and Sam Simmonds in their match-day squad - led only 16-12 at half-time of the Autumn Nations Series clash, with Freddie Steward scoring their only try amid a high-octane start.
At least one more touch down should have been added against resilient opponents who were on the ropes yet who stayed in touch through a steady stream of James O’Connor penalties.
And as the Cook Cup clash staggered into its final quarter after a humdrum spell full of indiscipline, untidy play and fussy refereeing from Jaco Peyper, England’s attacking intent subsided and an arm-wrestle took over.
Five penalties from Owen Farrell and one from Marcus Smith ultimately propelled them to a second win of the autumn, with Jamie Blamire’s stoppage-time try distorting the final scoreline, but Jones has been left with plenty to work on ahead of South Africa’s visit to Twickenham next Saturday.
Post-game, Jones said: “We had to battle today and I was really pleased with the attitude of the players. We thought it was going to be a more free-flowing game, how Australia usually like to play, but it turned out to be a heavy penalty game with a lot of set piece contests and kicking.”
Steward scored England’s opener, taking a delayed pass from Smith to burst through a gap in the Australian defence, weaving his way around a covering defender to cross the whitewash for his first Test try.
England’s other try was courtesy of Blamire, who cantered in off a pass from Simmonds unopposed from 50 metres, in the final play of the game. The pair impressed Jones, as did Sale Sharks prop Bevan Rodd, who made his debut.
“Bevan Rodd, to make his debut against a guy who has 113 caps and play 65 minutes, is a remarkable effort from a young man,” said Jones. “He is a young prop, only had one training run and I think he adapted well.
“Jamie Blamire is a young hooker we have identified could make a good Test hooker, and I think he’s set a record for scoring a try in his first four games. He has a scent for the ball. He still has work to do on his set-piece, like most young hookers do, but those two guys were really outstanding.
“Freddie Steward is brave in the air,” added Jones. “I haven’t seen an England full-back like him since Mike Brown, that is courageous in the air like him, he claims every ball and he is only a young kid.”
England welcome world champions South Africa to Twickenham next weekend, for their final Autumn Nations Series match, and Jones wants to finish off November well. The last time the sides met was at the Rugby World Cup final in Japan.
“They are a different team now, we are a different team, they’re the world champions, we’re not,” he said. “It is going to be an important Test between two very good teams to finish off the autumn. We want to finish off the autumn well. We’re looking at it as a final, but we’re going to have to play a little differently to beat them and we will start preparing for that.”