Three minutes from full time, the crowd roused itself for one last blast of Swing Low. Not in exhortation, now, but celebration. England were leading by 16 points, and Australia, a man down after Dane Haylett-Petty had been sent to the sin-bin, were scrambling to escape from underneath their own posts. The only question left was how many England were going to win by. Soon enough, the final whistle went and the international year was over. England finish it undefeated, with 13 wins out of 13, through the Six Nations, the summer tour and the autumn series. It is the first time in the professional era that they have made it through a year without losing a match. They won 16 matches in 2003, but lost to France in the run-up to the World Cup.
Jones said, quite rightly, that 2003 team was “a much better side than we are at the moment”. Eddie’s England are unbeaten, but even he wasn’t about to claim they look unbeatable. They have not yet played a game when they have sustained the high standard they reach in patches for an entire 80 minutes. The most impressive thing about Saturday’s this Test, like many of the other 12 they have won this year, was, as Jones said, how “composed, resilient, and adaptable” the team have become. England battled back from a desperately poor first-quarter when they seemed to be fazed by the furious pace of Australia’s play, just as they were in Brisbane back in June.
“We weren’t working hard enough off the ball,” said Jones. “We weren’t working hard enough on the gainline.” He told the team that too, during the half-time interval. He also felt his side were scatty in the first half and wondered if they were suffering from the kind of nerves that had affected them during their Six Nations grand slam match against France. It felt like Australia had started so fast that England were scrabbling to stay in touch. After 15 minutes they were trailing 10-0 and had not even made it into Australia’s 22. Sefa Naivalu scored after the ball bounced off Dylan Hartley’s knee during England’s put-in at a scrum five metres from their own line. It ricocheted across into Australia’s possession and they worked it along the line for a simple try.
It could have been worse. Australia had three tries ruled out. The first when Tevita Kuridrani touched down in the fifth minute after another slapstick passage of play. Owen Farrell dithered over Haylett-Petty’s chip and was collared by David Pocock before he could get the ball away. It broke loose over England’s try-line. Mike Brown missed it once with his hands and then again with his boot as he tried to kick it into touch. Kuridrani pounced, but the replays showed Pocock had knocked the ball on as he tackled Farrell. Then, after George Ford fumbled a chest-high pass in midfield, Australia came again after winning the ensuing scrum.
Sekope Kepu barrelled over the try-line this time. But George Kruis somehow managed to squeeze his knee in under the ball, and the television match official decided that he could not award the try because the footage was not clear enough.
A similar thing happened again soon after when Kuridrani slipped through. This time it was Jonathan Joseph who wrapped him up in a tackle, and, once again, the TMO decided that the replay was not conclusive. Australia had crossed England’s try line four times in 15 minutes then, but scored once.
As Michael Cheika said: “You don’t win 14 Test matches in a row out of luck.” England won the match in the 15 minute period after the break. Marland Yarde scored after Joseph kicked a cunning little curving chip between Reece Hodge and Israel Folau and then Ben Youngs scored. This after Nathan Hughes palmed off Michael Hooper, as though he were staying a flailing axe before it hit the bough. Youngs took a quick tap-penalty and fooled Nick Phipps with a feint to Yarde – this autumn, Youngs has sold more dummies than Mothercare. Both were converted, so England had scored 14 unanswered points.
It was a wild swing. England were as bad at the start of the first half as they were excellent at the start of the second. Jones knows there will come a day when they need to match that standard for 80 minutes because sooner or later 15 poor minutes will cost them the match. Despite that inconsistency, they have risen from eighth in the world at the start of this year to second at its end. They are still behind New Zealand, but have beaten every other team in the top 10 along the way. Which makes them the second side in history to go undefeated in a year when they have played 11 games or more.
Predictably, the other are the All Blacks, who went one better and won 14 Tests out of 14 in 2013. In this record then, England are again second behind New Zealand, as they are in the current rankings.
“We’ve still got a hell of a lot of work to do to become the best team in the world,” said Jones, “but the great thing is we are developing a real desire to go there.”
Sadly, we have a long wait to see whether they can become No1, because they do not play New Zealand until 2018. In the meantime, Ireland, and the Six Nations await.
