England failed to make the knockout stage in the World Cup on home soil past year and were beaten in the group phase by the Wallabies, who went to make the final where they lost to New Zealand.
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It leaves Australia head coach Michael Cheika with a hard decision to make.
“It’s not obstruction. The guy went to the wrong attacker by his choice”, Cheika said after the game.
Wycliff Palu and Ben McCalman are options if Cheika goes for a traditional No.8, while Sean McMahon and Liam Gill will be in the mix if he prefers a fetcher in Pocock’s mould.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika insists he is not concerned by Jones’ plan to make the match a physical battle, saying his players are up for the fight. “We know this is an important game for us”, Phipps said.
“We have the option of staying with what we’ve got or, if we want to bring in nearly a like-for-like player, then we’ll go with Liam Gill”.
He objected to a vulgar question asked by former Wallaby back row Steven Hoiles in the post-match press conference at Suncorp Stadium and was incensed by a sneering promotional trailer for the series screened by the host broadcaster.
An excellent break from James Haskell set the foundation for George Ford – on as a first-half replacement for the injured Luther Burrell – to fling the ball wide to the right where Yarde crossed unopposed.
“We’ve got to have a different way of how we play the game against Australia”.
England could clinch their first series win in Australia with victory in Melbourne next week.
‘All I am saying is there’s been a disrespectful way in which the team has been treated in the media here’. Our execution at times was really good.
“He’s empowered me and now I have a role in the team”.
“I think he was outstanding, physically good, you know Pocock’s a special player but I think Haskell did some special things that gave us momentum”, he said.
“It took us a while to find the pace of the game and once we did I thought, the next 45 minutes we played some good rugby”.
England almost threw a 32-13 lead away when Australia clawed their way back to within four points courtesy of a second try from Hooper and one from Tevita Kuridrani, only for England to weather the storm and seal victory with a last-minute try from Jack Nowell.
Jones’ sentiment is echoed by captain Dylan Hartley, who is adamant England can win the series despite its timing at the end of the season. “We have got that opportunity on Saturday night”.
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Hoiles, rightly, did not repeat the question and the room fell awkwardly silent for several moments before rugby chat resumed. We’ll just see how we pan out. Obviously we were 10-0 down.
