Owen Farrell will start at fly-half for England in Saturday’s first Test against Australia with George Ford dropping to the bench.
Advertisement
The Australian could do worse than mention Eddie Paynter in his final address to his troops before they go over the top. “It comes from age and winning trophies”. “From there on in he’s been really wanting to get better”.
For Ford, this is a setback which had seemed inevitable after a chastening experience 12 days ago at Twickenham when he was booed after missing six of his seven shots at goal during the win over Wales.
While the practice was soon outlawed, Jones has taken inspiration from the series by showing clips to players and explaining that England similarly need to play with an aggressive approach to knock Australia out of their comfort zone.
“He’s unhappy not being the starting 10 and I’d be bloody disappointed if he wasn’t”, Jones said.
The Wallabies are masters at annoying, frustrating and generally messing up the opposition’s perceived areas of strength and it will take a Herculean effort from Cole and Vunipola to give Hartley the chance to strike cleanly on England’s put-in while the line-out lifters will be targeted throughout. As I said after the Wales game, I don’t think England rugby appreciates what a good player he is. “To change history, we’ve got that opportunity on Saturday night”.
Cheika, a former number eight, has always been aware that teams have to earn the right to play rugby with their work in the trenches, however, and believes his players are up for a scrap. He was going to be the next best thing and since then he hasn’t featured. Jones rates him, as does his skills coach Glen Ella, who said of Ford: “this kid can play”. ‘He has probably blown a bit of his career by being too big for his boots. “But he’s an instinctive player who will bring something special to the team”.
“I’ve heard a couple of the guys in the Japan team say they would never play under him again because they could not keep up with the workload it was so intense”.
Lionel Mapoe has been preferred to Jess Kriel at centre after a strong showing in Super Rugby for the Lions while flanker Siya Kolisi gets a first start after a record-equalling 13 caps as a replacement.
Advertisement
Australia: Israel Folau; Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Samu Kerevi, Rob Horne; Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps; David Pocock, Michael Hooper, Scott Fardy; Rob Simmons, Rory Arnold; Greg Holmes, Stephen Moore (capt), Scott Sio.
