England’s scrum-half Ben Youngs, fit to face Australia after recovering from an ankle injury, has called on his team-mates to blow away their opponents in the opening 20 minutes of their Pool A match at Twickenham on Saturday night.
“We’ve got to make sure we come out of the gate the first 20 minutes and blow them away. We’ve got to come out with a real intensity and edge to our game, a physicality,” said Youngs of what is a do-or-die game for the hosts. “Don’t match what they bring. We’ve got to go above and beyond that.”
Both Youngs and Jonathan Joseph, who returns at centre as the hoped-for X factor that can inspire England to victory, said Stuart Lancaster’s side would not shrink from the size of the challenge.
Youngs, who passed a fitness test on Wednesday, said the fact that there were no second chances for England would give them a psychological edge.
“The fact of the matter is that Australia potentially have a reason to quit tomorrow. They can go to Wales and get a result,” said the Leicester player. “They can afford to lose a game; we can’t. We’ve got to make sure we give them a reason to quit.”
It was the last quarter of the match against Wales that came under most scrutiny following England’s devastating defeat, with the players accused of ill-discipline and poor decision-making. Youngs, however, said the match against Australia could be won in the first 20 minutes, provided England roared out of the blocks. “That’s how we’ve got to go about our game – in the first 20 minutes give them a reason to fold.”
Joseph, who will line up at outside-centre in place of Sam Burgess, said there was no danger of England cowering under the scale of the occasion. “We’re definitely going to be positive about it. We don’t want to go into our shells. This is a do-or-die game, so we have to make sure we leave everything out there,” he said.
“We don’t want to come back after the game and be thinking: ‘What if? Why didn’t we do that?’ We’ll give them everything we’ve got and hopefully it will come off.”
Joseph, who injured a chest muscle in the tournament opener against Fiji, had to watch from the sidelines as England were beaten by Wales to put his side on the back foot in the so-called pool of death.
“It was a horrid game,” he said, “and the fact we didn’t really get beyond 10 points past them and they were still in with a shot.” He said the squad had “trained our hearts out” this week but highlighted the danger of giving away cheap penalties.
“We always talk about the breakdown, which is always massive for us, attack and defence. The indiscipline in that area. And on the flip side when we’ve got the ball we want to make sure we’re giving ourselves quick ball,” said Joseph.
However, Joseph, England’s top try scorer in the Six Nations this season, rejected the suggestion that he carried the hopes of the nation on his shoulders.
“There’s expectation but it’s one to 15, one to 23. We’ve all got a role to play. My style of play might be slightly different from someone who’s been there before but I’m just going to try to perform the way I perform week in, week out to the best of my ability,” he said. “I’m just going to play the way I play. I’m not going to try and be different and, if that’s moving the ball a bit more, so be it. That’s the way it is.”
Youngs said England’s recent positive record against Australia would count for little but pointed to the fact that since Lancaster was appointed in 2011 England have rarely been turned over. “The most we’ve ever lost at Twickenham since Stuart has taken over is eight points. That’s not a lot, is it? You know the game is going to be close,” he said.
“The past experience when we’ve played against Australia we’ve done well recently but it doesn’t count for anything tomorrow.”
