England out thought and out fought

MATCH REPORT: Australia have done the near impossible and beaten England 42-37 at Twickenham on Saturday.

England has never scored so many points at Twickenham and lost.

It took only five minutes to get Twickenham roaring as Marcus Smith cut back against the traffic and prodded the ball behind the Australia defence.

Centre Ollie Lawrence was on hand to power through before the hosts recycled the ball wide for Chandler Cunningham-South to cross in the corner. Smith missed the conversion.

It only took England six more minutes before Cunningham-South crashed over again after some deft stepping by Smith.

Smith added the extras and England was ahead 12-3.

And then it was some helter-skelter stuff as first Jamie George had a charge at the try line, and then a loose ball is picked up by the Aussies which saw them advance to well into Englands’ half.

Tom Curry suffered a nasty knock to the head and had to leave the field after 25 minutes of play, replaced by Alex Dombrandt.

Then the moment everybody was waiting for, Joseph-Aukuso Suallii showed his skills as he passed the ball over the head of his opponent to send Tom Wright over in the corner.

* To recap all the drama, CLICK HERE!

Lolesio converts and Australia closed the gap to 10-15 with ten minutes left in the first half.

And then Australia’s captain Harry Wilson scored his first try in a Wallaby jersey after Tate McDermot caught England off-guard and popped for Wilson to finish.

Lolesio converted and it was a one-point game, Australia trailing 17-18 just before half-time.

Australia won another penalty at the scrum, an area England would want to tighten up. Lolesio sent it through for the Wallabies to take the lead 20-18 going into halftime.

The momentum swung the way of Joe Schmidt’s men early in the second half and they got their third try ten minutes into the second half, courtesy of Jeremy Williams.

Australia now had their tails up, playing rugby and taking England on while the English started playing a negatively.

As Lolesio popped another one through the sticks, Australia stretched their lead to 10 points.

But a clever little roll kick through by Smith, finally saw England manage to get on the board again as Ollie Sleightholme charged through to dive on the ball closing the gap to 23-28.

Then the momentum changed sides and England kicked into overdrive.

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HT | ENG 18 – 20 AUS

Great battle. Big second half to come.#Wallabies pic.twitter.com/9A17OpK5O5

— Wallabies (@wallabies) November 9, 2024

George Ford went on at flyhalf as Smith moved to fullback. He was still dictating, resulting in Sleightholme grabbing his second try of the night and England was ahead again 30-28.

The Aussies in the meantime lost their captain Wilson due to a hard knock to the head.

A try six minutes before fulltime by Andrew Kellaway swung the it Australia’s favour again as they took the lead by 30-35.

A massive scrum for England on the Wallabies try line was their last chance to clinch it.,

Australia kept their cool as England edged forward and then Maro Itoje managed to scrape through.

Smith converted to take them into the lead again by 37-35 and one minute to go.

But still, the drama was not done.

Australia was back in the England half. A drop goal was on the cards, but then they peeled away. A lovely offload from Len Ikitau sent Max Jorgensen to race down the opposite side and score the winning try.

Moment of the match: Jorgensen’s try was incredible under pressure for Australia. England had it. How many times have England had the game under their control and then gone back to this dreaded box kick? It gets them in trouble every single time. For 65 minutes, England were fantastic. In the last 15 minutes, they were rubbish.

Villain of the match: The confusion around who of the England players had to leave the field early in the first half for an HIA, first the one wing was called, then the other. It had a massive impact on England’s momentum.

Man of the Match: Marcus Smith was the general for England, although they lost, the flyhalf was sublime in all aspects of the game.

The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Cunnigham-South 2, Sleightholme 2, Itoje
Cons: Smith 3
Pens: Smith 2

For Australia:
Tries: Wright, Wilson, Williams, Kellaway, Jorgensen
Cons: Lolesio 2, Donaldson 2
Pens: Lolesio 3

Teams:

England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (captain),1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt; 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Sleightholme.

Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suallii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermot, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia), Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)