Rugby: Warning for England after being beaten by Australia in Perth

Although outnumbered by Australia, they beat England on Saturday in Perth (30-28), which maintained eight straight wins against the Wallabies, but hampered that setback with a fourth straight defeat.

This first test match between the two countries, a very poor start to their summer tour for XV of the Rose, will be followed by two more matches, July 9 in Brisbane and 16 in Sydney.

The Australians, who were denied their opening Quad Cooper match, lost at the last minute through injury, thus erasing the three defeats they had suffered during their autumn tour of Europe, against Scotland (15-13), in England (32-15) and Wales (29- 28).

As for Eddie Jones’ men, they suffered their fourth defeat in a row, having been dominated by Ireland at the Six Nations Championship at Twickenham (32-15) and the Blues at the Stade de France (25-13), then by the Barbarians in mid-June, again in Twickenham (52-21).

Just over a year into the 2023 World Cup in France, that’s good news for the Australians, who are in Group C along with Wales and Fiji, and bad news for the English, who in turn will feature in Group D with Argentina and Japan.

At the end of the first half of this difficult match, which saw the elimination in the 34th minute of the Australian second line Darcy Swain, accused of hitting the Englishman Johnny Hill, who was punished for his part with a yellow card, the two teams tied 6-6.

– to be proud –

But in the second period, after an attempt by XV de la Rose in the 49th position by its columnist Ellis Genge, the Wallabies, coached by New Zealander Dave Rennie, responded with two straight attempts in quick succession, 64th place by winger Jordan Petaia. , then in 69 for the prostitute Fulao Venga (23-14).

Eddie Jones’ men then looked completely overwhelmed, especially as the Australians added a layer, thanks to a third attempt signed by linebacker Pete Samo in the 78th.

Then, the English, led by 30-14, went looking for reason and pride to close the gap at the end of the match, by scoring two attempts in stoppage time, by Henry Arundel (80) and then Jacques Van Portvelt (80 + third). But it was too late.

“We had to dig deep, get to the bottom of things today to find the right solutions,” Wallabies captain Michael Huber said after the match, saying he was “really proud of the players and the team for the effort they put in.”

His English counterpart Courtney Lawz spoke of the defeat “too hard to bear”, while acknowledging that Australia “played well”. “They came up with a good strategy and played better than us,” he said.