INTERNATIONAL RUGBY England v Australia:ENGLAND'S DECISION to wear dark grey instead of white at Twickenham today is clearly tempting fate.
Aside from Desert Orchid, who had no choice in the matter, the roll call of grey-tinged sporting successes is not extensive and the commercial motives for switching to “anthracite” scarcely gladden the heart. The bright spark who opted to link the national team with a mineral that ignites with difficulty has not done the home players a favour.
It will also leave England wide open to the hecklers if Australia daub this afternoon’s canvas with splashes of bold colour. If it is simplistic to bill the contest as a straightforward battle between English defence and Wallaby verve, the touring team will definitely pose a more sophisticated set of questions than most.
Quade Cooper, Matt Giteau and Kurtley Beale are almost certain to conjure at least a couple of tries between them, leaving England with little margin for error should they wish to obtain a first autumn win over Tri-Nations opposition since 2006.
This, according to Martin Johnson yesterday, is perfectly possible even if total scrum dominance does not materialise this time. England, after all, scored two sharp tries to beat the Wallabies in Sydney in June and have been working hard to shed their stereotypical image in the Southern Hemisphere as forward-obsessed plodders.
“Is that all you’ve got?” was the famous taunt in the The Australian newspaper in 2003 when Jonny Wilkinson’s influence was at its height.
The answer then was a resounding “No” and Johnson would love to make a similar point from the winner’s enclosure this afternoon.
To do so, his players have to re-establish Twickenham as the fortress it used to be. Between their pool defeat to New Zealand in the 1999 World Cup and losing to Ireland in March 2004, the England side of Johnson’s era chalked up 22 consecutive home victories. Lose today, by contrast, and it will mean a fifth home defeat in seven matches inside 13 months.
Australia, meanwhile, have won in Bloemfontein, Hong Kong and Cardiff since early September and are chasing their fourth consecutive Test win on the road. No wonder, then, that England are stressing the need to be less inviting hosts.
“We’ve got to make it bloody difficult for them,” Johnson said flatly. “We want teams to be coming here not looking forward to it. You only do that by performance. We didn’t start well enough defensively against the All Blacks; playing well in parts won’t win you a game at this level.”
Improving their defensive line speed and countering the human octopus that is David Pocock at the breakdown, though, are only half the story with England’s finishing far from decisive despite the inclusion of Chris Ashton and Ben Foden.
“We’ll get ball and it’s a matter of what we do with it. We know we can play and score tries at this level. Who scores the most points wins, generally,” added Johnson.
The bleeding obvious, sadly, is not enough against a smart team such as Australia. Even if Dan Cole and Andrew Sheridan create frontrow havoc, watch Will Genia get the ball in and away quick enough to shift the focus elsewhere.
“We place an appropriate emphasis on scrummaging every week but it’s not a matter of chasing the bus,” said Robbie Deans, the Australia coach, hopeful the return of Stephen Moore and a firmer surface will reduce the scrum problems of Cardiff.
Logically, the Wallabies should have no answer to England’s forward power. Unfortunately for the home team, logic tends to absent itself when Cooper and Beale are around. Give them space and it will be a grey day for England in every sense.
Guardian Service
ENGLAND: (Northampton) Ben Foden (Northampton) Chris Ashton (Gloucester) Mike Tindall (Bath) Shontayne Hape (Sale) Mark Cueto (Leicester) Toby Flood (Leicester) Ben Youngs (Sale) Andrew Sheridan (Northampton) Dylan Hartley(Leicester) Dan Cole (Northampton) Courtney Lawes (Stade Francais) Tom Palmer (Leicester) Tom Croft (Bath, capt)Lewis Moody (Harlequins) Nick Easter Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson (Leeds), 17 David Wilson (Bath), 18 Simon Shaw (Wasps), 19 Hendrie Fourie (Leeds), 20 Danny Care (Harlequins), 21 Charlie Hodgson (Sale), 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish).
AUSTRALIA: Kurtley Beale (Waratahs) James OConnor (Western Force) Adam Ashley-Cooper(Brumbies) Matt Giteau(Brumbies) Drew Mitchell (Waratahs) Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds) Will Genia (Queensland Reds) Benn Robinson (Waratahs) Stephen Moore (Brumbies) Ben Alexander (Brumbies) Mark Chisholm (Brumbies) Nathan Sharpe (Western Force) Rocky Elsom (Brumbies, capt) David Pocock (Western Force) Ben McCalman (Western Force) Replacements: 16 Huia Edmonds (Brumbies), 17 James Slipper (Reds), 18 Dean Mumm (Waratahs), 19 Richard Brown (Western Force, 20 Luke Burgess (Waratahs), 21 Berrick Barnes (Waratahs), 22 Lachie Turner (Waratahs).
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (Fra) Simon McDowell (Irl). TMO: Jim Yuille (Fra).
