England and Australia meet next Saturday in Melbourne for the second test in the three match series.
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No8 Pocock suffered the injury during England’s 39-28 victory in the first Test in Brisbane on Saturday and is expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks.
Eddie Jones hailed his England history makers – then told them their performance was not good enough, writes Alex Spink in Brisbane.
The hosts started in spectacular fashion, looking to spread the ball wide and outflank England’s defence, and they opened the scoring as lively open-side flanker Hooper scooted over after the long-striding Folau had made the initial break.
Australia prop Scott Sio was sin-binned for an infringement at the scrum, before two more Farrell penalties sandwiched Hooper’s second try of the game close to the hour.
“Some of our players will grow and we hope they all grow, but there might be a couple of them that shrink”, Jones said.
The spark was a wildly inappropriate post-match question, laden with sexual innuendo, from former Wallaby-turned-Fox Sports broadcaster Stephen Hoiles, relating to Jones’s victory celebrations with skills coach Glen Ella in the English box.
The Wallabies were also stung by a lop-sided 15-8 penalty count, with Farrell converting four of those in the first half as England clawed in front. “We can’t get too excited but the great thing about it is that if you have a three-Test series and you’re in it in the second Test, you’re pretty excited”. He could easily play Test rugby at 10 again but in my opinion only when he has the likes of a Henry Slade as 12 with him. This is the first of three, we put all our energy into this first game and to get the result is a god way to start the campaign.
“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.
Nowell plundered his try in the final minute of a pulsating showdown in Brisbane as Australia went in search of a match-winning try of their own. We had a specific plan to beat them.
“They’re the second-best team in the world and they’ve got the world’s best coach (Michael Cheika), so the pressure is on them next week”.
A smile out of Michael Cheika pre-game is like getting blood out of a stone, but there was Jones, strolling on the fringes as England warmed up, sporting a trademark cheeky grin. “And the lads were pumped up, there was a bit of moisture out there and I think you and Glen [Ella] had a good moment, looked lubed up and a fair bit of shrinkage”.
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England tourists past might have crumbled after going two tries down in the first 30 minutes to an Australia side playing running rugby at pace and with an accuracy that northern hemisphere sides can still only dream of.
