England may have traveled to the other side of the world, but some family weaknesses have accompanied them. Even more irritating than the end of their successful eight-game streak against the Wallabies was the sheer lack of available excuses and the way they let slip a contest they really should have won. This series of the best of three is far from over, but now there is English blood in the water.
In any case, this was an encouraging result from the perspective of Australia, who played with 14 men for 46 minutes after their striker Darcy Swain received a red card for hitting Jonny Hill. Since they also lost Quade Cooper to injury before the game and saw two other players sent off for the first 25 minutes, it was a character-laden victory forged in rare adversity.
Australia had fallen 14-9 early in the final quarter, but two tries in seven minutes from Jordan Petaia and Folau Fainga’a transformed the match. When bullying Pete Samu added a third in the 77th minute, the Wallabies were inappropriate with a 30-14 lead, only for tries from debutants Henry Arundell and Jack van Poortvliet to massage into the final score. The way England physically withered in the second half after Billy Vunipola’s costly sin will upset Eddie Jones as much as anything else.
It was a nightmare result for Jones everywhere. The more he plays with the car – a new captain, a reorganized side, different lieutenants – he seems to move less slowly. Something fundamental is not to click, despite the best efforts of their new boss Courtney Lawes, Ellis Genge and Freddie Steward. Once again, England gave away silly penalties at crucial moments and, as against the 14 Barbarians last month, lacked the ingenuity or dynamism to maximize their numerical advantage.
If it’s too early to completely eliminate Jones ’team, they’ve now lost three straight tests and are staying as far away as ever from the“ biggest team in history ”the coach headed to a couple of years ago. It continues to be awkward where there should be pace and now Australia has overtaken them in the world rankings. A 3-0 series defeat here and Jones ’insistence that everything will go well at next year’s World Cup will start to sound as true as Nadine Dorries’ fondness for the rugby league.
The credit, however, should go to the resolute and witty Australians. No one had considered Cooper’s 11-hour retreat, which damaged a calf during the warm-up and had to be replaced by Noah Lolesio, with James O’Connor dragged out of the corporate room to sit in the bench. Of all the players that Wallaby coach Dave Rennie would have least wanted to lose so close to starting he was his experienced midfielder and game creator.
Australian Darcy Swain receives a red card for James Doleman. Photography: Trevor Collens / AFP / Getty Images
Surprisingly, though, the Wallabies reached the halfway point level with 6-6 despite a stroke of luck that would have deflated Monty Python’s ever-optimistic Black Knight. A horrible fall forced the premature departure of winger Tom Banks with a broken arm and a prop Allan Alaalatoa then followed him through the tunnel after failing an assessment of the head injury.
Then came what everyone assumed would be the key moment. Hill and Swain became entangled, and after pulling his hair, Wallaby’s livid lock responded by dropping his head on his opponent. Even though the player had been seriously provoked, it was still nonsense, and after Hill had seen the yellow, the 24-year-old Brumbies lock inevitably turned red.
Surely England would make the most of it? Instead, they conceded an unnecessary penalty just before the siren and Lolesio scored his second penalty to nullify Owen Farrell’s two shots on three attempts. After an industrious effort down the middle, Tom Curry could have closed the game off after 20 minutes, but his finishing shot hit the post.
With Curry not returning in the second half and another avoidable penalty, awarded by Maro Itoje, which gave Lolesio a chance to put Australia ahead, the responsibility lay with England to catch up. They did so briefly, successive shots in the corner finally offered Genge a chance to disappear to the side.
However, if England thought the job had been done effectively, they were very wrong. Recognizing that they had to make the most of every opportunity, the Wallabies increased the pace and ingenious passes for the latter gave the talented Petaia enough time and space to lower the ball. Lolesio’s lightning pace was too much for Vunipola who could only look on as the Vunipola player blasted one home.
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Australia took less than two minutes to take advantage. With the same number of packages back, they had a chance to launch their rolling maul and Fainga’a happily came in to score just after arriving. Then the strong and energetic Samu gave an equally crucial final impetus to make irrelevant the late and late efforts of the huge promising Arundell, who left several defenders outstretched on his way to the left, and Van Poortvliet. The series is not over yet, but it seemed like a significant first chapter.