With the Twickenham crowd screaming at the end of a helter-skelter game, the England fly-half was the calmest man around to slot the match-winning penaltyAnd Eddie said it wasn’t about revenge. You could have fooled me in the final hectic moments of this helter-skelter game, when all the Twickenham crowd was up on its feet and screaming, while the players down below set about each other, pushing and shoving in the rush of blood, everyone desperate to stake their claim on the game. There were two points in it then, and less than a minute left to play. And from the middle of all this chaos, out stepped Marcus Smith, to line up the match-winning kick. It was only 25...
The Springboks fought hard but were unable to dominate the contest in the way they did two years ago in the World Cup finalSo much of the buildup this week recalled the events of 2 November 2019 in Yokohama. Back then, the Springbok pack scrummed England off the park, laying an indomitable foundation from which they controlled the game. When England’s backs got a sniff of the ball the South Africa defenders held the line like Spartans at Thermopylae.For the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s contest the opposite was true. England’s outside backs regularly outmanoeuvred the Springbok rush defence, scoring tries in either corner by sucking in the peripheral wing. Kyle Sinckler, so cruelly injured in the opening exchanges of...
England’s bullish head coach has dipped into his pick ‘n’ mix in a bid to handle the world champions’ heavy-duty forward packMuch has changed since Eddie Jones last named a team to face South Africa. Back in 2019 he was in a packed hotel ballroom in Tokyo awaiting a Rugby World Cup final that, ultimately, did not remotely pan out the way he planned. Two Covid-disrupted years on he is stuck on Zoom and admits he still awakes in the morning reflecting on the Springboks’ convincing 32-12 triumph in Japan.Which is perhaps why, before Saturday’s Twickenham Test, Jones chose to lay down as bullish a pre-match challenge to an opposing side as he has for some time. “Post the World...
New recruit looked comfortable in his third international and may turn out to be the perfect foil for Owen FarrellFor a few precious seconds before the start it felt as if Marcus Smith had Twickenham all to himself. Alone on the halfway line, with England lined up behind him, Australia spread out in front, he bounced the ball up and down while the referee paced around and counted down the last few seconds before kick-off.Smith looked pretty sure of himself down there under the bright lights, the hardest 80 minutes he has ever played stretching out ahead of him. If he had noticed the 82,000 fans gathered around, hanging on his next step, one would never have guessed it from...
The coach has named a strong, pacy side to take on his native country but can he get Owen Farrell and Marcus Smith to gel?If there is one nation Eddie Jones hugely enjoys pitting his wits against it is his native Australia. There are good reasons why England have beaten the Wallabies seven times in succession since 2016 and high on the list is Jones’s instinctive grasp, both psychologically and selectorially, of which specific buttons to push.Not only does he understand exactly how the Aussies feel when they catch a glimpse of a white shirt but he also knows what they hate most about playing the Poms. Hence the announcement of an England side with Marcus Smith at No 10,...