Foley was regarded as one of the most ordinary fly-halves produced by Australia, but that view dissolved in the first half as he helped himself to two tries, the second a magical score worthy of repeat viewing that saw Will Genia and Kurtley Beale play inspired supporting roles.
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That the Wallabies came out top in that battle would have surprised nobody but to see the English pack on the receiving end of the sort of scrum dusting they have routinely handed the Wallabies over the years was a real eye-opener.
But after suffering a humiliatingloss on the world stage, England only dispatched two players to be interviewed by media – Tom Wood and Richard Wigglesworth – and failed to add more players following requests to do so. We knew there would be a lot of pain in England’s backyard.
Captain Chris Robshaw and head coach Stuart Lancaster are set to face a few searching questions about their respective futures after England crashed out of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday. “We just wanted to get into it – you have not only got to keep your opponents out of the game, you have to keep the crowd out of the game”. “I’m sorry we let everyone down”, he said.
“Australia clearly improved in that area”, England coach Stuart Lancaster said. He urged the country not to turn on a young England team that was comprehensively out-thought and outfought over the 80 minutes.
When asked if was considering his future in the job, Lancaster said: “Well, yeah”.
“We have to go to Manchester and put in a good performance against Uruguay. The atmosphere was outrageously loud, that’s not an easy thing to deal with”, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said.
“We are gutted as a team and as a coaching team to have not got the win against Australia that would have got us through to the quarter-finals”.
THE Wallabies are applying the same cautious strategy to their World Cup campaign as the one that helped them build reputation as a scrummaging force inside a year: don’t get cocky.
Bernard Foley reaped the benefits of Australia’s disciplined attacking outlook, scoring 28 points.
In a record-breaking performance, Australia’s 33 points was also their biggest haul ever against England at Twickenham. It’s going to be a good team and I want the country to stay behind the team because they are good lads.
Within four minutes, only a Mike Brown tackle prevented the two-time champion from registering a try, although Foley’s penalty in the eighth minute deservedly gave Australia a 3-0 advantage.
“I think Owen [Farrell] played really well in the first half in this game and George is a great player as well. For 24 of them it’s their first World Cup“, Lancaster said.
“And Jonno being the person that he was wouldn’t have other people fall on his sword, so he stepped down, which I think was a huge mistake for the RFU not to retain him”.
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Against Australia, England targeted the scrum as a weakness, but it wasn’t, and became a Wallabies weapon.
