Eddie Jones will delight in the way England rode their luck to scramble a win against Australia from the chaos at their intimidating, unforgiving homeThe RFU is spending £50m rebuilding the eastern half of Twickenham. It is putting up a new rooftop rose garden, restaurant and music stage to make the old cabbage patch more welcoming. England, and Eddie Jones, of course, want to do the very opposite thing. The harder their visitors find it here, the happier they’ll be. And since the East Stand is a mess at the moment, all scaffolding, plyboard and piles of breezeblocks, Jones’s work is a lot further along than the builders’. England have not lost here since he took charge, their last defeat...
He may have the No15 jersey on his back but Kurtley Beale will move in tighter because he is an important distributor for Australia, and Eddie Jones will be wary of his influence on Saturday’s game at TwickenhamMichael Cheika put his money on Kurtley Beale and now we are really seeing it paying off for Australia. He lost Matt Giteau, he lost Matt Toomua – two players who can really influence a game – so Cheika identified Beale as his go-to man and he will be the key factor in Australia’s attacking structure on Saturday.Off the field, it looks as if he has really turned himself around – it would be interesting to know how much of a role Cheika...
Ireland’s resounding victory over South Africa gives them a claim on being Europe’s top side, while England and Wales labouredA lot of stiff, sore bodies will be hauled into team meetings this Monday, as the coaches run their weekend debriefings after the first full round of the autumn internationals. The Irish will be feeling that much better about themselves than everyone else. Nothing soothes a player’s aches and pains quite like a famous victory, and their 38-3 win against South Africa was a resounding result, the statement performance of the weekend. The only time a European team have beaten South Africa by more than that was when England hammered them 53-3 in 2002. That was back when the side that...
Eddie Jones missed his pillar players against Argentina, while Wales got off to a typically slow start and Scotland showed the risks attached to their open rugbyOwen Farrell will return to the England team against Australia on Saturday; the question is where. Eddie Jones played Henry Slade at 12 against Argentina but with a lack of quick ball, the Exeter centre was a marginal figure. The head coach has the option of restoring Farrell to inside-centre and moving Slade to 13, where he has excelled for the Chiefs this season, or putting Farrell at 10 in place of George Ford, who is not at his most effective when weighed down with slow possession. The decision should be made in conjunction...
Minus the man who carries the ball so much, Eddie Jones’s midfielders found they couldn’t get into the game against Argentina as much as they’d likeAll the talk in the buildup to the start of England’s autumn internationals was how they would perform without Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje. But the biggest miss for Eddie Jones was Billy Vunipola.Eddie was spot on when he said England just didn’t click, but while I thought a lack of cohesion would be understandable there was a fair bit more of it than I expected. And Vunipola’s absence is massive in that respect. Billy is such a huge focal point for England in terms of go-forward. He gives you 15-20 carries a game, it’s...