Player ratings: England
OPINION: England player ratings live from Twickenham: After successive one, seven, and two-point defeats to New Zealand, this was a Saturday afternoon ripe for Steve Borthwick’s team to take their many All Blacks frustrations out on a wounded Wallabies XV.
It seemed that they eventually would as they appeared to have rescued the result with a 78th-minute Maro Itoje try converted by Marcus Smith, who importantly was given the full duration and not damagingly hooked as happened seven days ago.
However, a brilliantly bonkers 10-try thriller had one decisive last twist remaining and it was Australia who were left celebrating a remarkable 42-37 victory with an 83rd-minute Max Jorgensen converted try that the tackle-missing Ollie Sleightholme, the scorer of two second-half England tries, won’t want to remember.
Just once in the past 11 encounters had the Australians got a victory against the English but inspired by the code-hopping Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who will be a global start of the game on this compelling evidence, they recovered from an early 3-15 battering to lead 20-18 at the interval.
They then built on that, moving 28-18 clear before Sleightholme’s double made it 28-30, setting up a grandstand finish.
Andrew Kellaway’s breakaway try wrested back the lead for the Wallabies, Itoje then struck for the English but once more they were unable to hang onto an advantage, Jorgensen stealing it with the clock in the red. Here are the England player ratings:
15. George Furbank – 4.5 (out of 10)
Didn’t feature in attack as was hoped and it was disappointing that he didn’t better shut the door defensively for Australia’s two first half tries scored in the same corner. Sacrificed with 18 minutes remaining, with Smith switching to full-back.
14. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso – 4
A very quiet, truncated display in contrast to last weekend’s try-scoring finesse. Was in the first half wars with a HIA that he did return from, only for his final act to leave him looking defensively poor with Jeremy Williams diving in for a 50th-minute try in the corner.
13. Ollie Lawrence – 8
Was heading for a higher rating but was marked down after missing his catch which led to the Kellaway try. Ran out in the No13 shirt but defended at inside and ran smart attacking lines all day off Marcus Smith’s promptings. An excellent effort.
12. Henry Slade – 6
Struggled in a defensive set-up that is now the remit of Joe El-Abd. Needed to be his team’s best defending back but was unable to provide that reliability.
11. Tommy Freeman – 5
Needed an upgrade after his slow-going effort versus New Zealand, but it didn’t really happen.
10. Marcus Smith – 8
Superb in attack, his dinked kicks in behind the defence were responsible for creating a couple of tries. Led the second-half fightback and kicked lovely off the tee. However, even he was fallible, as unfortunately seen in the last try concession.
9. Ben Spencer – 5.5
Showed attacking skills early on; look at his pass off the floor to the supporting Freeman. But his display them got bogged down, something not helped by his early second-half box-kicking and not doing enough to tackle the try-scoring Williams into touch. Exited on 62.
1. Ellis Genge – 7.5
Was up for this and did well in his 62-minute contribution. Involved in the early Chandler Cunningham-South tries, offloading for the first and quickly tapping the penalty for the second. Two scrum penalties added to his effort, but there ultimately wasn’t a winning reward.
2. Jamie George – 4
Gone on 51 minutes with his team 18-25 down, England have got a real leadership question to ponder. In France in 2023, the hooker was deemed irreplaceable but that has changed. Had a high tackle count but not the impact that was needed to stop the Australian resurgence.
3. Will Stuart – 7
His 69-minute involvement saw him feature high up his team’s tackle chart and his set-piece was also decent. England had just gone back in front when he was called ashore.
4. Maro Itoje – 8
Finished with a whopping 22 tackles and thought he had scored the game-clinching try with a brilliant 78th-minute from close range. However, he couldn’t keep a lid on the resulting defence to see the lead out.
5. George Martin – 7
Topped his team’s first-half tackle count and ended up third highest, but that industry was dented by getting left wrong-footed by Tate McDermott sniping at a ruck to set up Harry Wilson’s try. Taken off on the hour mark.
6. Chandler Cunningham-South – 7.5
Superb start in which he dived over untouched in one corner to get the scoreboard ticking and then burrowed over to add a second with Aussie defenders clinging onto him. We loved the enthusiasm of his celebrations but they were proven to be premature.
7. Tom Curry – 5
Has to be the most cursed player in the English game as regards injury setbacks. Had gone well until the crowd oohed when sent tumbling by Angus Bell. Then there was a deathly when his next involvement was getting his head on the wrong side of a tackle on Rob Valetini, ending his day after less than 23 minutes.
8. Ben Earl – 7
So much of England’s go-forward in the last 15 months has been through him, but while he began by giving Cunningham-South a fifth-minute try assist the ball was a first-half stranger to him as defence was where he shone. Came out of his attacking shell in the second.
Replacements:
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie – 6
First cap in two years, he helped up the ante after George found the going had gotten too tough.
17. Fin Baxter – 6.5
The youngster showed his engine following his 62nd-minute arrival.
18. Dan Cole – 6
Sent on with England having just gone 30-28 up, he produced a better cameo than last weekend.
19. Nick Isiekwe – 6.5
Followed up his blink-and-you-missed cameo versus New Zealand but just over 20 minutes here. Worked hard to get his team in front twice in that hectic finale.
20. Alex Dombrandt – 6.5
The 23rd-minute sub for Curry certainly wasn’t a like-for-like replacement but his highlight was giving Sleightholme the pass to level it up at 28-all.
21. Harry Randall – 6
England needed energy and he delivered it. Improved from a week ago but still not enough.
22. George Ford – 4
Last week’s appearance was a horror and he again unfortunately influenced the defeat here, his pass to Lawrence going astray and Kellaway hoovered up the gift.
23. Ollie Sleightholme – 6.5
Came on twice in the opening half as an HIA replacement before coming on again on 50 minutes. Excellently finished his two tries, but the kicker was that he was defensively exposed for a couple of Australian tries, including the end-game clincher.
