Was it the worst England result at any Rugby World Cup or the best display of the 2015 tournament by a team of genuine title contenders? Both felt like legitimate conclusions following the most famous Australian ambush since Ned Kelly’s heyday. If the Wallabies continue playing like this, better sides than England will end up sprawled in the dust.
If the brilliance, in particular, of David Pocock and Bernard Foley did not entirely explain the 20-point margin, it did underline the importance of individuals who thrive when the stakes are highest. This was a green and gold variation on England’s previous worst nightmare under Stuart Lancaster, against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in 2013, and the sombre-faced men in white will have flashbacks for life.
That numbing sense of shock explains why just two home players, Tom Wood and Richard Wigglesworth, felt able to front the media in the mixed zone afterwards. The rest apparently could not face it after England became the first host nation in the history of the tournament to bow out in the pool stages. “We have a proud England team but we have failed … there is no way of sugar-coating that,” acknowledged Wood.
The Northampton flanker also used the word “despair” to sum up the post-match dressing-room mood. In many ways England simply paid for their inability to nail Wales the previous week but no Test side can claim to be unlucky when they have been beaten twice on their own pitch in eight days, finished both games poorly and consistently allowed their discipline to fray. As well as Owen Farrell being sent to the sin-bin for a shoulder hit on Matt Giteau the referee, Romain Poite, who had an excellent game, could easily have shown yellow to Sam Burgess for a high tackle just a metre or two away.
Given the score at that point was 20-13 to Australia – who had led 17-3 at half-time – it was not the cleverest of acts. George Ford had made a significant difference to the rhythm of England’s attacking game and, while England’s scrum ended the game on its knees, there was still a faint chance of a resurrection to compare with Headingley 1981 – or maybe not. Once Farrell departed the Marmite v Vegemite derby, England were toast.
Wood, to his credit, made no attempt to sidestep his own side’s shortcomings. “We genuinely felt like we were [title] contenders but the proof is in the pudding and we are not,” he said, wincing at the prospect of England’s new role as the zombies of Pool A before this weekend’s final game against Uruguay. “We will have to stand back, watch everybody else and somehow find the strength to play with pride in a game that means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of World Cups. But if you pull on an England shirt, you have to do it proud. Whoever does play will have to find the courage to hold their head high and do it justice.”
The Wallabies displayed a different kind of bravery, retaining the courage of their convictions despite the wonderfully raucous backdrop. How many visiting teams, under such circumstances, would have started by looking to run from deep in their own 22? Pocock and his accomplice Michael Hooper made the English back row look painfully pedestrian and Foley, who endured some lean days for the Waratahs earlier this year, had the game of his life. If his first try showed an eye for the line, his second was quite outstanding, a slick exchange of passes with Kurtley Beale contrasting vividly with England’s midfield dexterity at this tournament.
By the time Foley also set up Matt Giteau’s late coup de grace with a wonderful long pass off his left hand to exploit the Wallabies’ extra-man advantage, he had already beaten Matt Burke’s all-time record for an individual points tally by an Australian against England. When he duly added the angled conversion it gave him a final haul of 28 points, the highest by any previous Test match visitor to Twickenham. Not since Jannie de Beer rained drop-goals on Clive Woodward’s squad in Paris in 1999 have England been undone by a less trumpeted No10.
Foley, 26, does not have the maverick qualities of Quade Cooper but he wielded a hugely effective baton here. “We knew the pressure was on England,” he suggested later. “If we could start well, they had to chase the game and that would be a tougher ask for them.”
Play even half as incisively against Wales and this accelerating Australian side will top the tournament’s deadliest pool, giving them a more encouraging route to the final. For a few sweet days they will have the keys to the host nation’s expensive mansion while the English shiver out in the cold in the backyard. Wood does not reckon the RFU should dispense with any of its coaching staff – “I don’t think there is a need to rip it up and go back to the drawing board … I can’t speak highly enough of the management team” – but Australia exposed more than enough structural cracks to make that unlikely.
England Brown; Watson, Joseph, Barritt (Burgess, 64), May (Ford, h-t); Farrell, B Youngs (Wigglesworth, 49); Marler (M Vunipola, 49), T Youngs (Webber, 60), Cole (Brookes, 53), Launchbury (Kruis, 68), Parling, Wood, Robshaw (capt), Morgan (Easter, 57). Sin-bin Farrell 70.
Try Watson. Con Farrell. Pens Farrell 2.
Australia Folau (Toomua, 64); Ashley-Cooper, Kuridrani, Giteau, Horne (Beale, 10); Foley, Genia (Phipps, 60); Sio (Slipper, 56), Moore (capt; Polota-Nau, 64), Kepu (Holmes, 56), Douglas, Simmons (Mumm, 64), Fardy (McCalman, 75), Hooper, Pocock.
Tries Foley 2, Giteau. Cons Foley 3. Pens Foley 4.
Referee R Poite (Fr). Att 81,080.
