England v Australia 29/11/14 Post Match Thoughts
By KBM
December 1 2014
England's forwards worked their socks off and pulled off a great win against the Wallabies with Ben Morgan scoring two tries and Graham Rowntree punching the air in delight, a very happy forwards coach me thinks;)
England 26 v 17 Australia
Cook Cup 2014
Final QBE Autumn International Test
This was a match that both teams wanted desperately to win, fortunately for us our scrum was 100% better than the Aussies and our muscle shone through to give us the win.
In truth the Wallabies looked like a team with 'Work in Progress' written all over their backs. A couple of flashes of the old green and gold speed especially the try by Bernard Folley ...........but not the team they used to be.
So what does that say about England? Well they, went route one via the pack, scrum and the forwards taking the glory on this one. We did have a couple of Johnny May flash runs but nothing that came of it. It was sheer grit and force which won the day. What do they say a win is a win no matter how ugly, well in my opinion there was nothing ugly about this win and it was well deserved. And Bravo Ben Morgan my Man of the Match.
Ben Morgan's First Try - all pictures paimages
and his second try
A special mention, George Ford, he was excellent, bossed the game really well and should stay at Fly Half in my humble opinion. Second special mention Brad Barritt.....phew, he put himself about the park, tackled his heart out, ended up with 10 stitches to his eye and limped off covered in blood.
I am sure all the English living in Australia will be on a high this week and have the rugby bragging rights again. However, let us not get carried away we needed that win but the Welsh, Irish, French, Scots and the Italians will be wanting to take a chunk out of England before the RWC2015 so they are going to have to get a lot better and the Six Nations must be a huge success to settle any lingering doubts.
As to the forthcoming Six Nations well we need to see some personnel come back from injuries and we must stop giving away penalties. Head Coach Stuart Lancaster when asked if there is one thing that would make a difference to his side, he said "Manu Tuilagi," Amen to that comment.
England: Brown; Watson, Barritt, Twelvetrees, May; Ford, Youngs; Marler, Hartley, Wilson, Attwood, Lawes, Wood, Robshaw, Morgan, Kruis.
Replacements: Farrell for Barritt (62), Wigglesworth for Youngs (71), Mullan for Marler (55), Webber for Hartley (72), Brookes for Wilson (61), Kruis for Lawes (55), Haskell for Wood (78), Yarde for Kruis (79).
Tries: Morgan (2); Cons: Ford (2); Pens: Ford (4)
Australia: Folau; Speight, Ashley-Cooper, Toomua, Horne; Foley, Phipps; Slipper, Faingaa, Kepu, Carter, Simmons, McMahon, Hooper, McCalman.
Replacements: Beale for Speight (64), Cooper for Foley (46), White for Phipps (50), Robinson for Slipper (68), Hanson for Faingaa (73), Alexander for Kepu (52), Jones for Simmons (41), Skelton for McMahon (59).
Tries: Foley, Skelton; Cons: Foley, Cooper; Pen: Foley
Att: 82,049
Ref: Jerome Garces (France).