England looking for rare away win Down Under - Match Preview
By Patrick
June 11 2010
England face Australia on Saturday chasing only their third ever win over the Wallabies on Australian soil. Despite losing to France in their last outing England showed signs of better form and boss Martin Johnson will be looking for continued improvement.
England looking for rare away victory Down Under - 1st Test Match Preview Here we are again, on the eve of another summer tour Test in the southern hemisphere at the end of a long hard season. This however will be the first time since 2003 that England have travelled South with such a first choice squad, and apart from perhaps a couple of positions, the Test team selected tomorrow is virtually first choice. England face Australia, looking for only their third ever win on Australian soil, the previous two both coming in the same year, 2003. Martin Johnson and his men will be looking to put down a marker and a statement of intent with the World Cup only a little over a year away, and this will be their last chance to show what they can do Down Under before next year’s tournament. There’s a lot riding on this match and with Australia suffering from key players being forced out due to injury, it's very much a case of now or never. The gulf in confidence, form and in certain positions, perhaps harshly, class couldn’t be any more pronounced between both nations. Australia are confident, with a refreshing ability to trust their youth and throw them in at the deep end, whilst not batting an eye lid. And whilst England team manager Martin Johnson has been shown to be able to trust his younger players on more than one occasion, the England starting XV continues to look less than stable as the international seasons go on with players coming in and out of the team, without a winning mentality to fall back on. It’s that lack of confidence and consistency both in terms of form and selection, coupled with the fact that this England team haven’t hard a warm up match together that will make the job Johnson’s men have all the more difficult.
As always, much will hinge on what happens up front. England will be out to capitalise on Australia's inexperienced front row as well as cash in on the injured Matt Giteau who was ruled out on the eve of Saturday's Test. Wallabies coach Robbie Deans had already been forced into several changes up front after injuries to Benn Robinson and Ben Alexander, as well as hookers Stephen Moore and Tatafa Polota-Nau. Deans resisted the temptation to call on some familiar faces in the form of veterans Al Baxter and Matt Dunning, instead going for raw trio Salesi Ma'afu, Saia Faingaa and Ben Daley meaning Australia will go into the match with a front row boasting just two Test caps. In contrast, England coach Martin Johnson named experienced trio Dan Cole, Steve Thompson and Tim Payne in his front row in a powerful English pack. The trio have 80 Test caps between them, 55 of them for Thompson, and the scrum is an area where the tourists will look to exploit the Wallabies.
Johnson flatly denied that Hape's appearance alongside the heavy-tackling Mike Tindall was a defensive option. "It would be absolutely wrong to assume that," the manager insisted. He was equally unapologetic on the Jonny Wilkinson front. Most Australians assumed the celebrated outside-half would mark his first match in their country since the 2003 World Cup final by starting it, but as every Englishman who witnessed Toby Flood's fine performance in the last Six Nations game against France has known for weeks, he will begin proceedings on the bench. "Jonny is the ultimate team man and he'll give 100 per cent whatever we ask him to do, so it was an easy conversation," Johnson informed a puzzled local journalist. "That 2003 game was a long time ago. You probably need to get over it a little bit." Johnson believes that the axis of Flood and Hape in midfield is well suited to bringing out the best in those around them. Danny Care has fended off the challenge of Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs, 20. The Harlequin needs to show that he has the maturity to run a game. At least he will not have to contend with the livewire Will Genia. Deans has opted to stick with Luke Burgess after Genia missed the last month through injury. Genia, though, is on the bench for a Wallabies side showing four changes to the starting line-up against Fiji. Tom Croft returns to the starting line-up having missed the entire Six Nations due to injury. James Haskell’s pace and power will no doubt give England a huge impact off the bench, as will Northampton forward Courtney Lawes.
While no English player was able to alter the selection during the hard-fought draw in the opening game of the tour, Western Force fullback James O'Connor forced Deans to ink his name on to the team-sheet for the weekend with a hat-trick of tries and a superb performance from the kicking tee. He is joined in the back-three by Drew Mitchell and Digby Ioane, both scorers against Fiji, while England offer plenty of pace and invention out wide as Northampton duo Ben Foden and Chris Ashton are aided and abetted by Sale's Mark Cueto. Cueto has hardly put a foot wrong for the last couple of seasons with England, having the remarkable ability of failing to score a try in over a year for England, yet still being one of the first names on the team-sheet. Foden and Ashton will be looking to stretch their legs and give the Wallabies plenty to think about, whilst Mike Tindall’s strong carrying game will punch a few holes in the defence, which support runners should be able to exploit. England’s offloading game has been virtually non-existent all season, and it’s something that supporters would love to see come to the fore against Australia, especially with players like Toby Flood and Shontayne Hape in their backline who can excel at keeping the ball alive. In order to stand a chance of winning, England have to strike a balance between what they have been traditionally good at - winning the ball, keeping the ball, imposing themselves in the forwards and kicking goals - with turning old weaknesses into strengths. Whilst the players surely won’t be looking to throw the ball around at every opportunity, the ability to put pace onto the ball in the wider channels, at the right times, and bring their talented runners into the game when needed will be key to England’s chances Down Under.
England: B Foden (Northampton); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tindall (Gloucester), S Hape (Bath), C Ashton (Northampton); T Flood (Leicester), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), S Thompson (Brive), D Cole (Leicester), S Shaw (Wasps), T Palmer (Stade Francais), T Croft (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester, capt), N Easter (Harlequins).
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