Rugby England-Australia 25-7, South Africa-Japan 61-7

England dominates, wastes but in the last 15 minutes they come out and beat a dull Australia 25-7, and the score could have been even wider. It’s true that the Wallabies were missing very important players like Skelton, Hooper and Ikitau – not released by their clubs in France and England because this match is not within the international “window” – but what the Australians showed is a step back compared to the victory against South Africa in August and the still competitive performances against the All Blacks in September. Australia will play again on November 8th against Italy in Udine and cannot make mistakes to avoid compromising their bid for sixth place in the rankings, which is worth a top seeded place at the World Cup. For England, despite the many errors, important signals especially from the point of view of physical dominance: next outing next Saturday against Fiji. At Wembley everything was easy for South Africa, who extinguished Japan’s hopes with 3 tries in 17 minutes and then spread to win 61-7.

waste

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England play like England: lots of kicks, lots of pressure and then furious charges from the forwards to wear down their opponents. Australia suffers, commits 4 fouls in the first 6 minutes and seems to be able to immediately capitulate, but Wilson performs a semi-miracle by holding Chessum up who had crossed the goal line but was unable to spike. When the English have to hold the ball for a long time they always fall into the usual mistakes, but in their foot play and on high balls they remain very dangerous: Ford puts Edmed in crisis who finds himself with three opponents on top of him and is unable to clear. Free kick and Ford himself scores the first points of the match in the 20th minute, then after a minute with the same script England scores their first try. Another high ball, this time from Mitchell, Sualii falls asleep and is burned by Roebuck, ball for Earl who can fly between the posts for 10-0. England continues to defend at a low pace and then accelerates with sudden bursts, comes close to scoring twice but in the 34th minute Dingwall makes the cut: 3 against 2 situation for the English, but the center completely misses the pass to the outside on Roebuck giving the oval to Potter, who thanks him, runs all over the pitch and scores the try to make it 10-7 which ends the first half.

confusion

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The second half is even more confusing. McReight saves on a first action by Itoje, then on the other side Alaalatoa inspires the action of Valetini and Pollard, Paisami flies to the left side but Underhill saves with a great intervention. When the Wallabies attack they end up losing 10 meters one contact after another every time, on the other hand the English continue to prove superior without however achieving anything. The result was a second half full of errors, and in the 58th minute England resolved the situation with the usual – and always winning – script: Mitchell’s ball in the sky, Australia in the ball (this time it was Edmed who was burned by Roebuck in the aerial battle), an oval given to Pollock with a motorway in front of him flew to dunk for 15-7. Ford doesn’t convert but it’s +8 for England, who continue to waste an incredible amount of chances against an Australia who always seems on the verge of giving in but remains standing. In the 69th minute the home team gave up 3 easy points to look for the big target: they went for a throw-in, the maul was dominant but Cowan-Dickie lost the ball badly one step away from the knockout goal. Australia, however, continues to not get a spider out of the hole, they remain under pressure in the 72nd minute, England closes the issue: amazing play by Mitchell who passes between Edmed and Frost and smashes for 20-7 with Ford not converting. At that point the match is over, because Australia leaves the field and is literally plowed by a 25-metre maul: Cowan-Dickie crushes (recovering the previous mistake) for 25-7. It ends like this, with England making a good start to their Autumn Nations Series. Australia won’t be able to make mistakes against Italy in 7 days.

south africa-japan

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For Eddie Jones, coach of Japan, the match at Wembley against South Africa was supposed to be the match in which he would attempt the feat of 10 years ago again. The dream, however, vanishes in just over a quarter of an hour: South Africa scores 3 tries in the first 17 minutes with captain Kolisi and a brace from Mngomezulu (the second try is a splendid serpentine between 4 players) and closes the matter, also because the physical dominance is clear and Japan, despite some good initiatives with ball in hand, is unable to counter it. The rest of the match is pure management. The Springboks win 61-7 with 9 tries to 1, scoring again with a technical try in the 35th minute and then with Louw, Arendse (double), Esterhuizen and Kriel in the second half. For Japan, Yazaki’s flag destination.