It was an eighth successive win over Australia, but there wasn’t much English euphoria. Eddie Jones and his squad were soon shifting their focus to the final autumn mission. Revenge.
The head coach is well aware that his rebuilding team will need to be a whole lot better against the Boks than they were against the chronically limited Wallabies.
England must take a giant step up to avoid being the victims of another South African knock-out, two years after they shattered their dreams in the World Cup final in Yokohama.
England had to battle hard to get through Australia with a 32-15 victory at Twickenham
‘If you are taking on a heavyweight contest and fighting against George Foreman, who can whack and whack and whack and whack, you have to do something a bit different,’ said Jones. ‘We have got four days to come up with something a little bit different. And we will.’
Jones set the scene for an epic Test by talking about preparing for a ‘final’ and taking the ‘scalp’ of the world champions.
There will be no shortage of motivation, especially for those players who were on the losing side in the 2019 final — and those who were part of the Lions squad who slumped to a series defeat in South Africa in the summer.
But a quest for vengeance will not suffice. England have to play with more composure and precision, as well as with fire and fury.
Against Australia, their scrum struggled against a patched-up Wallaby pack and there were damaging lineout lapses. Worse still, England were eclipsed at the breakdown by a visiting team who scrapped and spoiled to make up for a gulf in class.
Without the ability to build sustained pressure in a stop-start mess of a match, Jones’s men lacked a cutting edge after their stunning early try, finished by Freddie Steward.
The Leicester full back was excellent and the new, multi- purpose, rotating back line showed glimpses of potential. But it is a work in progress and the same could be said of the 10-12 alliance between Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell.
It would be churlish to be too harsh on victors who eventually won with room to spare, but their own response was candid.
‘If I am being honest, I think we are more satisfied with the result,’ said Kyle Sinckler. ‘We were a little scrappy and the breakdown needs to improve, set piece too.
‘We want to attack more and really take the game to teams, it just takes time. It is about finishing those opportunities off. At times it was good and at times it was sloppy. We will get there.’
Looking ahead to the showdown with the world champions, Jones added: ‘South Africa present a different challenge, based on the accuracy of their kick and kick-chase, the physicality of their forwards around the ruck and a very strong scrum.
‘The first thing we need to do is be really consistent in our scrummaging, so we don’t allow them access into our half.
‘We have to try to take away their maul and be really good at neutralising their kicks. If we do that, we can create opportunities to attack against them. We will go in prepared for that sort of game.
Freddie Steward scored the opening try but England struggled to kick on from there
‘Like any team, they have weaknesses in their defence and we’ll be able to find a few of those.’
Any desire to nullify the Boks’ kicking will rely heavily on Steward, who has made a ducks-to-water impact as a Test novice. It turns out that, initially, Jones had doubts about the 20-year-old Tiger, but he has hurriedly revised his opinion.
‘I remember seeing Freddie with Leicester last season and at first we thought maybe he has not got enough pace to play Test rugby,’ said Jones. ‘We brought him in in the summer to have a look at him. He surprised us with how much pace he has got.
‘He is brave in the air and he has got quite an uncomplicated game. Players with an uncomplicated game tend to adapt much quicker. He is a guy like that.’
These days, Sinckler is one of
