Ireland’s latest bruising win shows they are the real deal, England’s set-piece strength will be key against Australia, and New Zealand are human after allWhen Ireland beat New Zealand on 5 November, and the All Blacks returned the favour two weeks later in Dublin, there was a sense that the two best teams in the world were slugging it out. But in that second game, Ireland were not just beaten, but beaten up, left bruised and bloodied by the brutal All Blacks. They were forced into three early changes, with Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw ruled out of the clash with Australia. Simon Zebo had a knock, and CJ Stander overcame a head injury. On matchday morn, Sean O’Brien joined...
A year after the then captain and his team were booed at the Rugby World Cup there is respect for his doggedness and not only because of their winning runOdd little memories stand out crystal clear from the great mêlée of Saturday’s match, which was otherwise one long blur of flying bodies, boots and balls, reset scrums, rolling substitutions, red and yellow cards. One is from 25 minutes in, when Facundo Isa leapt to catch Ben Youngs’ box kick. Isa spilled the ball forward and it landed slap in the lap of Chris Robshaw. He puffed out his cheeks, punted it 30 yards downfield and set off in pursuit. Robshaw galumphed along like a happy labrador chasing a stick on...
Eddie Jones’ side make case for defence against the Pumas before taking on Michael Cheika’s Australia and Six Nations has edge over Rugby Championship Related: England and Owen Farrell dig deep to win 14-man battle with Argentina Related: Eddie Jones sets his sights on Australia after ‘outstanding performance’ Continue reading...
Victory over Argentina in a thrilling and brutal encounter was further proof that England have been transformed under the leadership of Eddie JonesLate on Saturday afternoon a brilliant red sunset settled over south-west London, making a fitting backdrop for a bloody match at Twickenham. It was a game that contained, as Eddie Jones said, more drama than your average EastEnders omnibus. It was bracketed by two red cards, one for Elliot Daly four minutes from the start, another for Enrique Pieretto four minutes from the finish. In between, including all the extra time at the end of the first half, there was an 80-minute melee, which looked, at times, like one of those cartoon bust-ups in which everything is a...
The recently recalled flanker says England, who chase their 13th straight win against Los Pumas on Saturday, are a different beast under Eddie JonesEddie Jones knew precisely what he was doing when he suggested Argentina could pose England their toughest challenge of this autumn series. As well as alerting his own side to the perils of complacency it also delivered a jagged little dart to Australian posteriors before their Test against Ireland. Even if the Wallabies do not respond in kind when they reach London next week, Jones’s calculated jibe will have found its fleshy target.It also had the additional virtue of being potentially true. Argentina did, admittedly, end up bottom of the Rugby Championship and lost to Australia at...