Winger Jonny May scored two tries in three first-half minutes as England underlined their Rugby World Cup credentials with a dominant 40-16 win over Australia on Saturday.
The win helped them to set up a semi-final against New Zealand or Ireland.
Four years after the Wallabies sent England packing out of their own tournament, Eddie Jones’s side gained a measure of revenge.
They also extended their winning streak over the Australians to seven matches.
Australia played a full part in an engrossing contest, but in the end were well beaten by a team who defended stoutly.
They took their chances ruthlessly and had a flyhalf in Owen Farrell who managed the game maturely and kicked flawlessly for 20 points.
England, who scored four tries in all to Australia’s one, have now won three out of three World Cup quarter-finals against Australia following their upset wins of 1995 and 2007.
They will move on with confidence to the clash with the All Blacks or Ireland, who play later on Saturday.
“I thought Australia made that a brilliant game. They attacked throughout but our boys did well in defence and managed to get some field position off the back of it,” said team skipper Farrell.
“We know when we have field position we can be pretty dangerous. We did what was needed. We had the lead and Australia were throwing everything at us again. We wanted to play the game at our pace and we did that in the second half.”
Twice world champions Australia were losing finalists in 2015.
But while their early departure will probably mark the end of Michael Cheika’s five-year reign as coach, he will be pleased they went down attacking with ball in hand.
“We played an attacking style of rugby which I think really threatened the English today,” said skipper Michael Hooper.
“Congratulations to England for a good win. We are really upset, we emptied into this and didn’t get it. We are gutted.”
Australia made the better start but were unable to turn early possession into points until flyhalf Christian Lealiifano opened the scoring with a penalty after 11 minutes.
The lead would only last seven minutes before the first of May’s double strike, England giving the Wallabies an object lesson in how to make pressure pay.
That was when the winger went over on the overlap after a beautifully delayed pass from flanker Tom Curry.
Australia went straight back on the attack but a David Pocock pop-pass went through the hands of Lealiifano and Henry Slade swooped onto the ball.
The centre raced 40 metres before putting May into the left corner again with a neat grubber kick.
The Wallabies were stunned but still avoiding kicking out of defence.
They were making good ground with ball in hand and again working their way deep into England territory, only to spill the ball in the tackle.
The referee was playing advantage, however, so Lealiifano was able to cut the deficit to 14-6 from the kicking tee.
But another penalty apiece before halftime sent England into the break with an eight-point advantage.
Three minutes into the second half and it was one point, a lofted pass from Reece Hodge setting centre Jordan Petaia free on the left.
The teenager found Marika Koroibete who turned May inside and out before touching down.
Another England double whammy almost immediately put the Australians on the back foot again, however.
Farrell first provided a sublime flat pass to put prop Kyle Sinckler in for his first test try.
Then, after his pack had monstered Australia at the scrum, the flyhalf stepped up to extend the lead to 27-16.
Australia knew they needed to score next.
But, when offered the opportunity with a penalty in front of the posts just before the hour mark, Michael Hooper elected to go for a scrum.
England’s eight held firm, the defence held firm, and soon they were back in the Australia half.
They were hammering away at the try line and earning a penalty that Farrell slotted to take the lead to 14 points.
The 2003 champions were now in full control and Farrell slotted a fourth penalty after Australia collapsed a rolling maul in desperation.
The Wallabies were forced to throw caution to the wind.
Anthony Watson scored a fourth try from an intercept four minutes to ensure England would match their record winning margin over
Australia, the 30-7 win in 2017.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.