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Sun 19 Jun 2016 | 03:09
England win in Melbourne to take first ever series victory in Australia

13
Comments

England's comprehensive 23-7 victory over the Wallabies in Melbourne sealed their first ever series win in Australia. It was built on an incredible defensive performance after the Wallabies had dominated possession but couldn't break an impenetrable English wall.

The match was a coming of age for Chris Robshaw, who wore the England jersey for the 50th time and along with James Haskell and Billy Vunipola, got the better of the Wallaby loose trio.

The Melbourne turf was fairly disgraceful as it broke up at every scrum, leading to an official statement today from the ARU. They have said that while their are internationals scheduled for AAMI Stadium in 2017, they will have to pass stringent tests for them to go ahead.

The Wallabies had an incredible 74% but England's tacklers never backed off, as Owen Farrell punished the home side with the boot at every opportunity. He then scored a try of his own late in the game, adding to skipper Dylan Hartley's 19th minute pushover score.

Wallabies captain Stephen Moore said post match that they simply need to improve.

"England deserved to win both Tests and we just need to get better. They defended really well, we had a lot of ball down their end of the field and couldn’t get it over the line at crucial times, we’ll look at that and improve but they defended really well.  

"I’m pretty gutted about it at the moment, we’ll own the performance and get better."

The series is wrapped up but the third and final Test will go ahead in Sydney next Saturday.

NOTE: If the video doesn't work in your country, you can view it on page two

Posted By: Grant Constable

13 Comments

  • dancarter
    7:42 PM 21/06/2016

    I had the feeling that they could have spent a month in our 22 and still wouldn't be able to score.

  • drg
    7:39 PM 21/06/2016

    oh you're right regarding the points, that amount of possession should definitely have yielded far more points than it did.

    Although a slightly different kettle of fish, Scotland went through a phase of getting on top of the on field battle at times, yet never converting it to points because of the inability to finish.

    Hopefully for Australia they won't fall into that same funk...

  • fitz
    4:12 PM 21/06/2016

    I was really pleased when Joubert took into account the number of phases England defended without transgressing, after receiving that first warning. Intelligent refereeing and should always be considered before throwing cards around. Weaker teams who spend most of a match defending will always give away more pens, so I've always thought it a bit tough when players are binned even though many phases may have been completed by the time a further penalty is conceded.

    Agree that overall England had the rub on some tight calls, particularly Haskell lying on the ball by the try line, but can't recall any decisions that were blatantly incorrect. And Moore's only got himself to blame for that reversal.

  • breakaway
    12:33 PM 21/06/2016

    I understand your point, but if you have so much extra possession, territory, metres going forward etc, you're going to be scoring more points if you don't keep losing the ball. Australia kept racking up the good stats that should have got them over the line, but the turnovers killed them. It's usually been a strength of Aust backs that they can break the line of even a tough defence, but in this game they showed very little of that. So the phases just mount up and the turnover comes.

  • jonnyenglish
    11:43 AM 21/06/2016

    Equally, I don't think that Nigel Owens was right to try to ping Farrell for taking out Farley when he had run in his path. Poor shout by him, soft penalty give.

    It would've been soft either way.

  • drg
    9:20 AM 21/06/2016

    Regarding the errors and possession stats, are they somewhat skewed? 24 errors to engs 10, just over double right? But with more than 3 times the possession you're bound to make more errors?? Just like I've never lost a game of aussie rules....why? Because I've never played it before....

  • breakaway
    8:26 AM 21/06/2016

    The Poms deserve their series win because they've played to their strengths, being the best drilled NH forward unit in this part of the world since their WC-winning crew and a very reliable goal kicker. I would add that their defence was terrific too but the real story there, in my opinion, is how impotent the Australian backs were. Even taking into account the Eng line speed and grit, the Wlbs just offered no real test for the defence, running predictable lines repeatedly until they lost the ball. Over 70% possession and territory and then coughing up 24 turnovers to 10. The contrast to their 2015 WC backline is stark and points up Australia's perennial problem with genuine depth in many positions. Not that England's backs offered much in attack either, but they just haven't needed to.
    Oz missed Pocock badly but generally the pack did OK, winning a couple of crucial scrum penalties and getting the maul over the line. There were a couple of bizarre calls by Joubert, but in truth the Wallabies had plenty of time and lots of chances to win this one and they couldn't make it happen.

  • drg
    10:58 PM 20/06/2016

    Ah yes, I totally forgot about that 2v1 penalty, it makes total sense to me that 2 penalties should go against the 1, however I guess in the eyes on the law Moores was the last penalty.

    As for that block on Farrell, totally agree it was very soft, I don't think (Farley was it?) actually slowed Farrell, and Farrell got his moneys worth by sending the guy tumbling.

  • jimmy23
    10:23 PM 20/06/2016

    A couple of the calls that went our way were a bit iffy. The 'block' on Farrell was a bit soft and I'm not sure about that one which got reversed cause Moore retaliated as we infringed twice before that. I would have thought two penalties outweighed one but maybe it's because it was a retaliation rather than a foul committed in play.

  • drg
    8:29 PM 20/06/2016

    Views on Jouberts efforts?

    I'm really not a fan of the guy and I thought his lack of carding was highlighted, but then his explanation at one point at how England were 25 minutes without indiscipline, so it was back to a warning seemed quite fair? (In two minds)
    I felt for Moore though, he looked at his wits end - I'd imagine England were up to all sorts of things that the referee missed and which he didn't, "the niggle" as it was called definitely seemed to spill over quite a bit, would love to see the tunnel footage!

    I was utterly disgusted by Owen Farrell poaching a well worked forward try!

    Actually, the forwards in the England side seemed quite handy putting the boot to the ball.

  • jimmy23
    4:23 PM 20/06/2016

    Think my nails are starting to grow back now. Must have disturbed half the neighbourhood with my screaming for Farrell's try (how about that grubber from George!). One can't help but wonder how we would have fared if Australia had the likes Giteau, Ashley-Cooper, Pocock, Ginea etc... But to hold out for that long is a remarkable effort regardless.
    So pleased for Robshaw as well, how satisfying must that have felt for him?

  • danknapp
    10:10 AM 20/06/2016

    I'll just leave this here, then.

    http://www.rugbydump.com/2016/06/5123/fox-sports-australia-pull-no-punches-in-new-promo-mocking-england-ahead-of-series

  • danknapp
    10:08 AM 20/06/2016

    I'm still walking about four inches taller after that display. What a defensive effort. The team played their hearts out for each other.

    Our defence seems sound. Now we need to look to focus on our attack, as Jones has rightly highlighted. We've got some really exciting players but few are world class, I hope to see Jones sculpt some of them into true world class individuals.

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