Wales skipper Sam Warburton said in the prelude to the match that his players would not underestimate their opponents who had caused both England and Australia problems during their games.
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England must beat Australia at Twickenham on Sunday morning (NZT) if they are to avoid being knocked out of their own World Cup at the Pool stage.
“Last weekend was heartbreaking and devastating”. We’ve got to make sure we come out and in the first 20 minutes blow them away. They can afford to lose a game.
“I think the next level was for him to dictate like that in a Welsh shirt, and I think he has done that. They can go to Wales and get a result”, said the Leicester player.
Only once have bonus points decided the outcome of a pool – in 2011 when France edged out Tonga and went on to reach the final – but should England beat Australia today it could come down to such slender margins again.
Dismissing D’Arcy’s comments, Cipriani said: “Everyone has a role to play in this World Cup – whether it’s the media or former professionals not directly involved in the competition”.
What we now know is that England have no wriggle room, they have to win against Australia.
“It’s all about winning this weekend, building a performance to put us in the place to win this game – if not we’re out of this tournament”, said Farrell.
The stakes are impossibly high as England seek to record a third successive victory over an Australia team that won this summer’s Rugby Championship and Lancaster knows the moment must be seized.
Quade Cooper makes way at fly-half with Bernard Foley coming back, while Michael Hooper, David Pocock and Matt Giteau are also named in the starting line-up.
“For many years we struggled a little bit maybe from external pressures for whatever reason that really strong belief in the team as a whole in ourselves mate was a little bit absent”.
“I’ve seen games when we’ve lost by three, five, six points, been disappointed with ourselves or our decisions, but we’ve always come back and delivered”.
Cheika said he had no interest in reviving the pre-match sparring that became commonplace when Woodward was in charge of an England team playing against an Australia side coached by Eddie Jones. Their scrum was on top and they dominated our scrum and poor kicks allowed Fiji back into the game.
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The Pacific islanders went down 23-13 to Wales at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Thursday in a battling display that showcased their dynamic counter-attacking and burgeoning set-piece promise.
