This week’s sad news from Australia has reminded everyone that professional sport’s ups and downs are strictly relative. It does not ultimately matter who wins at Twickenham as long as every player involved is still alive to tell the tale afterwards. The black armbands worn by the visitors will not reflect one nation’s sorrow alone.
Traditional Anglo-Australian rivalry, however, will swiftly be rekindled once the crowd’s valedictory applause for Phillip Hughes has concluded and England and the Wallabies start wrestling for the Cook Cup.
Both teams badly need a morale-enhancing victory to sustain them heading into 2015 and England, having initially hoped to win four Tests on successive Saturdays, cannot afford to conclude the series without a solitary home victory over major southern hemisphere opposition.
Andy Farrell, England’s backs coach, has already endured a tricky week, having seen his son Owen demoted to the bench in the midfield reshuffle that has given Billy Twelvetrees a chance to state a lasting claim at inside-centre. Farrell Jr, according to his father, was less than happy – “His reaction is very much what you would expect from a professional rugby player … not accepting it is the right thing” – but England’s desire to take out their frustration on Australia is very much collective.
“There’s been a bit of tension, which you need, and an edge to our training and our meetings,” said Farrell Sr. “There is an appetite to go out and not just show their skill levels and tactical nous but also their willpower. An English fightback attitude is hopefully what we’ll see. We need to make sure we get our attitude right and show a bit of passion, then the rest will take care of itself. We’re certainly good enough on the front foot against any team.”
England’s forwards, in other words, will have carte blanche to climb into the visiting pack and deny the talented Australia back division the time and space they relish. It does not have to be pretty; England are way beyond caring what their wins look like. In that sense this is ideal preparation for next year’s World Cup pool match between the countries, even if both sides claim the fixtures are not inextricably linked. “The Aussies are just getting together as a new side. We’ll all be in trouble if we don’t improve in the next 10 months,” said Farrell, adamant the World Cup will be a different kettle of barramundi.
Michael Cheika, the Wallabies coach, also wants the fixture to be played in the present tense, with some justification given he was appointed just days before the tour. So far his squad have beaten the Barbarians and Wales and lost narrowly to France and Ireland, making this last hurrah a barometer of fitness and stamina above all else. “I have been involved in too many teams where I have been slagged off in the early days so I know you just have to weather that storm,” Cheika said. “I can’t make results come by just snapping my fingers.”
He might have added that the average age of this Australia team is lower than their hosts’; there is only one participant over 30 – Adam Ashley-Cooper – in the two starting XVs. England’s age-old struggle to find their best combinations, however, goes on. If they fail again there will be little sympathy on social media, as Dylan Hartley learned after being sent to the sin-bin against the Springboks.
“Just because I’m a big, burly rugby player I have feelings too,” said the Northampton hooker. “You can’t cyber-bully anyone.” He is right, plainly, but if ever there was a day for England’s passionate forwards to show their full worth this is it.
