This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
England 13-33 Australia
by David Nicholson
at Twickenham
ENGLAND’s World Cup dream turned into a nightmare at Twickenham on Saturday as a ruthless Australian team clinically dispatched the home side from their own competition.
The Wallabies and England are old rivals and the margin of defeat was the greatest yet in a World Cup between these foes.
The Wallabies were sharper, more clinical, better in the scrum and looked like potential World Champions.
England in comparison were pedestrian, lateral in attack and lacked the sharpness needed to find a way through the Australian defence.
The closing stages of the match as England looked to mount a fightback ended in the side’s perpetual ill-discipline and a yellow card for Owen Farrell.
Coach Stuart Lancaster was booed at the end and the knives will be sharpened for his head and that of captain Chris Robshaw after a dismal showing.
“Obviously I have to think about it. It’s not one for now, we still have another week to go but the responsibility and accountability rests with me,” Lancaster admitted.
After all the brave talk over the past three years that England would play exciting, fast-paced rugby, this game showed just how far off that boast Lancaster’s men were.
Scrum-half Ben Youngs set the tone when he over-kicked into the Wallaby dead-ball zone.
The usually reliable Mike Brown fumbled on the touchline, taking it into touch on England’s 5m line for an Australia attacking line-out.
And it was Brown who compounded his earlier slip with a knock-on to concede the scrum that led to fly-half Bernard Foley’s first try.
Wales punctured the chariot’s tyres and now Australia bricked it up and stole the wheels.
For good measure the Wallabies also set about destroying the English scrum, sending it rocking back to gasps from the Twickenham faithful, as even that last refuge of superiority was routed.
Farrell’s successful penalty kick to reduce the second-half deficit to seven points was ironically struck from the spot where it would have earned a draw against Wales.
That brief flicker of hope was extinguished as the ruthless southern hemisphere champions took advantage of Farrell’s sin-binning to stretch their lead to 33 points.
Wallaby coach Michael Cheika gave an ominous warning to the rest of the competition that his team were still improving.
“We have been working hard on our scrum. You can dominate one but the next one you can get your pants pulled down.
But you have got to be consistent.”
England’s last World Cup outing ended in ignominy with the team performing disgracefully off the field, but muddled their way to the quarter-finals.
Lancaster has ensured there have not been any dwarf-throwing antics this time around, but the side are now infamous for being the first hosts to exit their own tournament in the pool stages.