Australia v England, 11 June

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AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND
11 June 2016
20:00 AEST (UTC+10)
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Live on [tbc]

Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Touch judges: [tbc]
Television match official: [tbc]

A. Head to Head

44 Played 44
25 Won 18
1 Drawn 1
18 Lost 25
940 Points 674

B. Recent Form

3 October 2015 - Twickenham, London: 13 – 33 to Australia

29 November 2014 - Twickenham, London: 26 – 17 to England

2 November 2013 - Twickenham, London: 20 – 13 to England

17 November 2012 - Twickenham, London: 14 – 20 to Australia

13 November 2010 - Twickenham, London: 35 – 18 to England

19 June 2010 - Telstra Stadium, Sydney: 20 – 21 to England

12 June 2010 - Subiaco Oval, Perth: 27 – 17 to Australia

C. Teams

AUSTRALIA 

Israel Folau; Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Samu Kerevi, Rob Horne; Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps; Scott Sio, Stephen Moore (captain), Greg Holmes, Rory Arnold, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, David Pocock.

Replacements: Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Slipper, Sekope Kepu, James Horwill, Dean Mumm, Sean McMahon, Nick Frisby, Christian Lealiifano

ENGLAND

15. Mike Brown; 14. Anthony Watson, 13. Jonathan Joseph, 12. Luther Burrell, 11. Marland Yarde; 10. Owen Farrell, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Dylan Hartley, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. George Kruis, 6. Chris Robshaw, 7. James Haskell, 8. Billy Vunipola.

Replacements: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Matt Mullan, 18. Paul Hill, 19. Joe Launchbury, 20. Courtney Lawes, 21. Danny Care, 22. George Ford, 23. Jack Nowell.

Just noticed that England needed one more try - a win by >15 would have sent England to No 2 in the rankings. As it is, we stay at 4, unless Ireland can win. Go Ireland!

With both the Saxons and 1st team winning, a good weekend for England.

I thought JJ had a great game too

I am smelling something very, very sweet.

Who is this Haskell geezer, England haven't had a openside like that since the Wales game about 4 years back.

Ford actually made 9 tackles in the 50 minutes or so he was on the pitch, so over 80 it would equate to around 14-15, something I didn't expect.

England looked seriously dangerous ball in hand after the first 20 minutes and the pack looked both mobile and powerful, enough to seriously hinder the Aussie backrow who though successful on occasions where too often blitzed by the England pack.

Going to absorb, reflect and then probably gloat about the result until next week when I will be very nervous again.

There is little more dangerous than a wounded Wallaby.

HammerofThunor wrote:Realistically this was our best chance of winning. They're cold, we're established. As the series goes on, they warm up, we tire. So that's the right start. Next week will be a lot harder.

Maybe, but England had to get used to Australia's width on the ball.

It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the team. It seems Burrell wasn't injured - a tactical move by Jones, which worked out. So I suspect next week we'll see Ford and Farrell starting.

It will be a different game - and I assume a different thread.

Alex_Germany wrote:Just noticed that England needed one more try - a win by >15 would have sent England to No 2 in the rankings. As it is, we stay at 4, unless Ireland can win. Go Ireland!

With both the Saxons and 1st team winning, a good weekend for England.

With u20 playing tonight? it maybe a treble.

It was interesting with Farrell's comments. He mentioned players coming back in the squad and think it was a reference to
Burrell not fitting the defensive system at the moment.

Great win. To me it's what Jones has brought... Cool decision making under pressure and self belief - Two things that are intrinsically related.

There were worrying signs defensively though, it seemed too easy for them to just run outside us without having to do much... And some poor organisation for a few of the tries. I think on another day this could have gone the other way.

But then there wasn't much in a few of the six nations games... It's about those small margins that help you win the close games. It's a great habit to develop... Long overdue in English rugby.

It's going to be a great series. England's pack edged out Australia's backs to day. Next week's reaction from both sides will be interesting.

Great win for England.

An outstanding performance from every player. Probably the best thing to see was the players adapting on the pitch to the Ozzies. We've never done that before, but today we took that first quarter pummelling, learnt and then found a way to negate it.

Eddie Jones got a heck of a lot right, now it's all on next week.

Also got to say a huge part of this win was the confidence that the winning Sarries players brought; Itoje, Kruis, Billy and Farrell all had that swagger that we needed.

Took some of the Sarries lads a while to settle, Mako and Kruis being stripped in contact and Farrell missing touch from a penalty were key components in the first two tries. Itoje was the exception starting like he was superhuman. It was almost reassuring to see him wobble aroundbthe 70 minute mark with some missed tackles and soft penalties.

Thought Robshaw was being unfairly criticised by the Radio 5 mob (I listened to radio and then watched pics on skybgo when I could) as I saw him get through a hell of a lot of work.

Finally, Dan Cole can perhaps stop having nightmaresbabout RWC. He seemed to have Sio in his pocket.

I think the key for me is that Jones has given each player strict individual instruct.

Like haskell. Very inconsistent for years....suddenly he's Mr consistency doing the basic role hes asked to do. Ie smash anything and everything!! Don't try to be too clever.

Cole schooled Sio. Even the pens against where Cole getting on top from what I could see.

Robshaw had a very good game I thought, one of his better showings.

But

When the aussies were flying in the 1St 20 it was scary. If they come out the same next week but keep that pace up it'll be nervous!!!!

Been on a flight, very happy to land and see the score! Have to find some highlights later.

Watched it on a delay, completely lost my Poopie when Nowell went over at the end, what a game

I thought we were going to be reeled in late on, so glad we managed to hold on

As for the discussion about locks, all I can say is I wouldn't swap our 2 for anyone other than the NZ pairing, and even then I'd think about it first

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

It's always the other team that played badly, just like Wales two weeks ago. Funny that. Must be why England have been giving them a 10 point headstart, so the final scoreline isn't too embarrassing.

Have a little grace.

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

It's always the other team that played badly, just like Wales two weeks ago. Funny that. Must be why England have been giving them a 10 point headstart, so the final scoreline isn't too embarrassing.

Have a little grace.

That's not what I'm saying and it's just my perspective pal and I'm entitled to it. You've had a knack for coming in and trying to prove me wrong since before the World Cup and failed on every single occasion, just give it a rest and look a bit closer to home when it comes to showing a little grace.

Well done England on a good win today .

To be fair the type of game England have been playing does put a lot of pressure on the opposition (very Sarries...). So they do tend to make the opposition play badly...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Great comment from Jones re haskell.  

"Yeah the old fella did well. Everyone said he couldn't play international test open-side but hes doing not bad is he?"

Haskell made some nice comments during his interview as well. Showed some class. HIs challenge is to carry it over for more than one game. We all know he has always had the potential to play top level Rugby, and he has done it in the past. Consistency at the highest level is the key for him.

HammerofThunor wrote:Realistically this was our best chance of winning. They're cold, we're established. As the series goes on, they warm up, we tire. So that's the right start. Next week will be a lot harder.

Yeah you'd expect Aussie to win the next two but who knows, if England can start better and live with Aussie next week then nerves may kick in.

lostinwales wrote:To be fair the type of game England have been playing does put a lot of pressure on the opposition (very Sarries...). So they do tend to make the opposition play badly...

Yeah, poor four is being a bit childish with those embarrassing comments over somebody not sharing his point of view, even after I agreed with some of his points. England and Aus can get better from here on in anyway, especially Aus.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

That reminds me of what people constantly say about Sarries. For some reason the other team did not play as well as they can. Funny thing is it happens all the time.

Bringing in Gustard was Jones' wisest decision. Once England got rid of Burrell Australia really struggled with the wolf pack defence.

Alex_Germany wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:Realistically this was our best chance of winning. They're cold, we're established. As the series goes on, they warm up, we tire. So that's the right start. Next week will be a lot harder.

Maybe, but England had to get used to Australia's width on the ball.

It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the team. It seems Burrell wasn't injured - a tactical move by Jones, which worked out. So I suspect next week we'll see Ford and Farrell starting.

It will be a different game - and I assume a different thread.

I would hope to see the same team except for Ford replacing Burrell and Slade replacing Ford on the bench.

Having Slade on the bench would mean that we could still play a ball playing twelve in the event of injury.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

It's always the other team that played badly, just like Wales two weeks ago. Funny that. Must be why England have been giving them a 10 point headstart, so the final scoreline isn't too embarrassing.

Have a little grace.

That's not what I'm saying and it's just my perspective pal and I'm entitled to it. You've had a knack for coming in and trying to prove me wrong since before the World Cup and failed on every single occasion, just give it a rest and look a bit closer to home when it comes to showing a little grace.

Well done England on a good win today .

In my experience, people who bang on about how they're entitled to their opinion when no-one has even suggested otherwise are generally people who have just realised they can't actually justify their opinion using reason.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I am smelling something very, very sweet.

Who is this Haskell geezer, England haven't had a openside like that since the Wales game about 4 years back.

Ford actually made 9 tackles in the 50 minutes or so he was on the pitch, so over 80 it would equate to around 14-15, something I didn't expect.

England looked seriously dangerous ball in hand after the first 20 minutes and the pack looked both mobile and powerful, enough to seriously hinder the Aussie backrow who though successful on occasions where too often blitzed by the England pack.

Going to absorb, reflect and then probably gloat about the result until next week when I will be very nervous again.

There is little more dangerous than a wounded Wallaby.

Really concerned about what (who?) you are smelling. Not that it is my business, of course.............

I think in the next game, the Wallabies will attack our back line mercilessly. The defense by the backs were overall poor. Lots 'o tackles, but England missed a ton of tackles, most by the backs. All of them missed tackles, and even worse - and not counted by stats - were the number of times the backs were out of position. England gave up 4 tries, including two to a flanker positioned on the wing. That is really unacceptable.

Now, I am not trying to rain on our parade. I am really happy about the win. England scored 39 points in 65 minutes. They didn't let a bad start kill their performance, nor allow the inevitable fightback to be successful. This is a great sign going forwards. But our weakness on the defensive side of the ball by the backs was shocking.

Fantastic for England, I guess that's the difference between English and Welsh players, England believe in themselves, refuse to accept they are inferior, and can go out there and win, while Wales chuck in the towel and regardless of how seasoned and experienced simply know they are not good enough to win anything.

Shifty wrote:Fantastic for England, I guess that's the difference between English and Welsh players, England believe in themselves, refuse to accept they are inferior, and can go out there and win, while Wales chuck in the towel and regardless of how seasoned and experienced simply know they are not good enough to win anything.  

You're right about England's players but what an odd thing to say about our players when a lot of them always give 100% for their jersey .

thomh wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

It's always the other team that played badly, just like Wales two weeks ago. Funny that. Must be why England have been giving them a 10 point headstart, so the final scoreline isn't too embarrassing.

Have a little grace.

That's not what I'm saying and it's just my perspective pal and I'm entitled to it. You've had a knack for coming in and trying to prove me wrong since before the World Cup and failed on every single occasion, just give it a rest and look a bit closer to home when it comes to showing a little grace.

Well done England on a good win today .

In my experience, people who bang on about how they're entitled to their opinion when no-one has even suggested otherwise are generally people who have just realised they can't actually justify their opinion using reason.

Which part would you like me to justify?

Exiledinborders wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:We can't say much apart from, the scoreline says it was a thumping win in Aus against the Wallabies. I don't think England played all that well if I'm honest* but they did enough against an erratic Aus.

*i missed the final 10-15 minutes.

Well, shucks. If we can beat the second best team in the world in their backyard by a record score while not playing well, I shall look forward to what England will be able to do when Eddie's had a bit more time with them.

Yeah pretty much. I thought Aus just went completely off the boil. England didn't lose their heads when it would have been easy to do so.

That reminds me of what people constantly say about Sarries. For some reason the other team did not play as well as they can. Funny thing is it happens all the time.

Bringing in Gustard was Jones' wisest decision. Once England got rid of Burrell Australia really struggled with the wolf pack defence.

An England fan said something similar when he compared Sarries and England. If you're wondering what I think of Sarries then check their threads .

Shifty wrote:Fantastic for England, I guess that's the difference between English and Welsh players, England believe in themselves, refuse to accept they are inferior, and can go out there and win, while Wales chuck in the towel and regardless of how seasoned and experienced simply know they are not good enough to win anything.  

I don't think it is so simple. Australia and NZ are different sides too. The biggest difference comparing England and Wales is that the England bench is every bit as strong as the starting line up. Its not the same as Wales.

As for the opposition you always know that regardless of what else happens there will come a spell at some point in the game when NZ suddenly massively up the tempo and score a couple of tries in as many minutes. The difficulty is in how you respond. Going back to THAT england NZ game for once we also responded by upping our tempo and scoring against them. That and shutting the AB's out in the first half meant that they had too much to do.

mikey_dragon wrote:

That's not what I'm saying and it's just my perspective pal and I'm entitled to it. You've had a knack for coming in and trying to prove me wrong since before the World Cup and failed on every single occasion, just give it a rest and look a bit closer to home when it comes to showing a little grace.

Well done England on a good win today .

In my experience, people who bang on about how they're entitled to their opinion when no-one has even suggested otherwise are generally people who have just realised they can't actually justify their opinion using reason.[/quote]

Which part would you like me to justify? [/quote]

The bit where you said that England didn't actually play all that well, but just capitalised on an erratic Australian performance, which I think poorfour was right to call graceless. There's literally zero chance that you opinion of how the game panned out would resemble anything like that if it had been Wales instead of England.

thomh wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

That's not what I'm saying and it's just my perspective pal and I'm entitled to it. You've had a knack for coming in and trying to prove me wrong since before the World Cup and failed on every single occasion, just give it a rest and look a bit closer to home when it comes to showing a little grace.

Well done England on a good win today .

In my experience, people who bang on about how they're entitled to their opinion when no-one has even suggested otherwise are generally people who have just realised they can't actually justify their opinion using reason.

Which part would you like me to justify? [/quote]

The bit where you said that England didn't actually play all that well, but just capitalised on an erratic Australian performance, which I think poorfour was right to call graceless. There's literally zero chance that you opinion of how the game panned out would resemble anything like that if it had been Wales instead of England.[/quote]

Right lets backtrack here a bit because some of you, well three of you plus a token Scot are struggling with basic reading and comprehension skills.

I stated it was a good thumping win for England straight off the cuff. I also insinuated that they played below the some of their parts - letting in four tries for starters. England have had a better defence than that in recent times. I don't see a problem there. I personally believe that they can play better, even agreeing with poorfour when he alluded to that. This conveniently ignored of course. Aus were also pretty good on the attack throughout the game, so I can also agree that most defences would struggle to contain their runners. After a bright start Aus missed kicks, gifted England 7 points and went through a period where they just give away penalties - so that for me is Aus playing below the sum of their parts. I've also suggested that when England were under this early pressure from the wallabies that it would have been easy for them to lose their heads like might have happened to other teams, but they didn't which I acknowledged. That's complimentary to England.

I also stated later on that both England and Australia can get better from here on in, especially Aus because in my opinion they were pretty awful at most aspects of the game for a long period of the match. So there we have it I can actually justify my opinion, you were wrong there and there is nothing at all graceless about that.  Wales is irrelevant to this so I have no idea why you're so keen to talk about them. Perhaps you should go to the Wales thread for that.

Can I also ask, wtf is wrong with some of you? When somebody says something that might be just slightly at odds with your own point of view why you feel the need to insult them, mob them and chase them like a wild goose? There's the graceless and bigoted behaviour right there! If you're going to be children you're best ignored, I'm going to continue watching and commenting on this series as I believe it will be the best one, regardless of whether you like or dislike another person's perspective.

It's interesting to see how some Australian supporters see the match, judging by online comments.

At one extreme, the loss is put down to baffling decisions by Poite, and a typical limited kicking gameplan by England, which wouldn't have succeeded if Foley had scored his goals.

No-one seems to be particularly concerned about the threat our backs might pose, although that's where we scored out tries.

There are some who think England might have worked out Pooper such that it's too risky to try again.

Rugby Fan wrote:It's interesting to see how some Australian supporters see the match, judging by online comments.

At one extreme, the loss is put down to baffling decisions by Poite, and a typical limited kicking gameplan by England, which wouldn't have succeeded if Foley had scored his goals.

No-one seems to be particularly concerned about the threat our backs might pose, although that's where we scored out tries.

There are some who think England might have worked out Pooper such that it's too risky to try again.

I read through the match thread on green and gold. Have to say that amongst the usual parochial BS there is some pretty good (and fair) analysis.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Shifty wrote:Fantastic for England, I guess that's the difference between English and Welsh players, England believe in themselves, refuse to accept they are inferior, and can go out there and win, while Wales chuck in the towel and regardless of how seasoned and experienced simply know they are not good enough to win anything.  

You're right about England's players but what an odd thing to say about our players when a lot of them always give 100% for their jersey .

Come on mate, he's entitled to his opinion, stop being childish and disagreeing with him

I see Jones is grounding the players already, "we didn't play well, neither did they".

We will be better next week, the side that improves the most will win sort of stuff.

I think I would be a bit wary about telling Haskell he didn't play well, or Farrell (24 points), but I understand where he is coming from, too many missed tackles, too often being caught with the widest defenders being big forwards, they have now chance of outpacing or getting across to the likes of Folau.

I am not sure how Aus can change to stop the wolf pack defence, it leaves some holes to be exploited, but you have to have the ball in space to do that and neither Sarries or this England give sides that space; well England didn't for 70 minutes of the game.

anyone know where i can see full match? had to take kids to wendyball this morning

Usually on YouTube in the next 24 hours

Thanks to Ireland we go up to 3rd in the world rankings

Haskell - 18 tackles and 3 turnovers. Good 7 performance.

Made a statement when Kvesic didn't really in the game on Friday night.

mikey, I am sorry if I offended you. And as you rightly say, you are entitled to your opinion. Your longer justification of your point of view is a good analysis and I'd agree with a lot of it. But - whether you intend to or not, and whether you realise it or not - you do post a lot of stuff that can be read as dismissive of anything England do.

Anyway, what I would take issue with is the idea that Australia were erratic. From about 10 mins in to 20 mins in they were clearly the better side and you only have to look back at the posts from that period to see that fans of all stripes were expecting the Eddie Jones bubble to be very unceremoniously burst.

Blaming their failure to capitalise on being erratic is both dismissive of England's contribution to the game and doesn't actually reflect their performance. Australia had 56% of both territory and possession and scored 2 good tries in the second half. Australia were clearly still able to capitalise on good possession - but England had adapted their defensive system to close down the space, and upped the aggression at the breakdown to disrupt the Pooper machine.

Foley's kicking was flaky - but Cheika knew that in picking him, just as Jones knew that Ford's goalkicking is flaky when he picked him for Wales. The only really erratic thing was the decision to kick for points late in the game.

Just watch a couple of passages of Australian attacking play before and after Burrell left the field and you can see the difference that England's play made to Australia's effectiveness. I'd agree that England have a lot more room for improvement, especially fluidity in attack, and the defensive system clearly needs personnel who trust it to work properly.

But they already have some priceless qualities that took even SCW years to implement: they know how to disrupt the other team's game; they know how to change their own game in the course of play; and they know how to attack effectively on the break. They are also making much better decisions than they have since, well, 2003. Those are far harder to get right than adding a bit more fluidity in attack or tuning up the defensive system, both of which need time bit will happen.

There is a lot for England fans to be happy about right now, and it's not just down to Welsh indifference or erratic Australians.

For next week, anyone else think Brown could use a rest? He seems to have lost a yard or two in his counter-attacking, was at least partly at fault for two+ of the Aus tries in the corners where he arrived too late to cover the outside man, knocked on uncharacteristically a simple catch in a dangerous position (twixt our 22 and 10m line) and, finally, owes Poite a huge beer for spotting the crossing that ruled out Foley's great finish which included a horrible missed one on one by Brown. Most tellingly, however, MB didn't even seem to have the energy to join any of the minor flare ups - surely a sign something is wrong.

I'm not his biggest fan, but feel Alex Goode - on the back of the Sarries effect - might get the nod at 15 next week. But the really aggressive call from EJ would be to put Watson (who played splendidly and made some crunching covering tackles on fast moving opponents inside our 22) with Marland and Jack on the wings. Maybe with Goode on the bench for cover at 15.

Imagine Goode playing against the pace and physicality of the Aussies, scary.

Agree on Brown, he looks out of his depth at the minute.

11. Nowell
14. Yarde
15. Watson

Let's go for it!

I'd much rather see Watson at 15, Goode is a good club player but he'll get steamrollered by the Aussies, far too slow to cope with their pace.

I hope he drops burrell and puts slade on the bench not Teo!

Yes please not Teo!

That game has proved that right now we need a second play maker, not a big unit to get chopped down. Slade would be far better and covers a lot more.

mikey_dragon wrote:After a bright start Aus missed kicks, gifted England 7 points and went through a period where they just give away penalties

Missed kicks? Maybe they should pick a world class kicker instead of Foley? But then they'd miss their tries.

Gifted a try? Most tries are gifted. The All Blacks are the masters of accepting the gifts. Are they poor because the opposition always gifts them tries?

Penalties: Aus gave away three rapid penalties near their line, in dangerous positions. If they hadn't given away the penalties, England might have scored tries. If they don't want to give away so many penalties, don't pick a back row who play on the edge. But then the opposition score instead.

Both teams played well. England played their best match under EJ so far. Overall, that was the highest standard game of international rugby since the RWC final.

yappysnap wrote:Yes please not Teo!

That game has proved that right now we need a second play maker, not a big unit to get chopped down. Slade would be far better and covers a lot more.

Is that a firm conclusion? And is Teo a "like for like Burrell replacement"?

Yes and yes

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Imagine Goode playing against the pace and physicality of the Aussies, scary.

Agree on Brown, he looks out of his depth at the minute.

11. Nowell
14. Yarde
15. Watson

Let's go for it!

I agree about Brown looking a step slow. But not sure about pulling him now that we are in the middle of the tour. Next week I would expect the Wallabies to kick over the top a lot more to slow down the rush defense. And Brown, whether fast or slow, is solid receiving kicks under pressure. I am not terribly confident about Watson in that role. I also expect the Wallabies to attack our back line continually since the backs were generally poor on defense. Far too many missed tackles and even worse were the number of times they were simply out of position. In that case I would prefer a superior defender back at 15.