Conventional wisdom, in the northern hemisphere at least, has it that should England’s front-row perform their usual demolition job on the Australian scrum then a win at Twickenham today is assured.
When the Wallabies were last in London, in 2005, England’s Andrew Sheridan inflicted a huge beating upon Al Baxter, his front-row opponent again this weekend, and the Australian was sent to the sin-bin for collapsing the scrum.
Sheridan wrecked Australia’s scrum again during England’s 12-10 World Cup quarter-final win in Marseille last year.
PHOTO: AFP
Clearly if England achieve such set-piece dominance again they will be well on the way to victory.
And the fact manager Martin Johnson, who captained England to a World Cup final win over Australia in Sydney five years ago, has recalled grizzled prop Phil Vickery and selected lock Tom Palmer indicates the regard he has for the set-piece.
But, in the Tri-Nations, the Australia pack more than held its own during wins over New Zealand and world champions South Africa.
PHOTO: AFP
England, in their first outing under Johnson, beat the Pacific Islanders 39-13 at Twickenham last week in a match where they struggled at the scrum.
By contrast a back three featuring two debutants in full-back Delon Armitage and Ugo Monye, together with Paul Sackey, took every chance to run the ball and did so to good effect.
The youthful half-back combination of Danny Care and Danny Cipriani, also showed plenty of promise.
Cipriani, who saw a delayed clearance-kick punished by a charge-down try, only gave himself “six out of 10” for his performance last weekend, which suggests he doesn’t need anyone to tell him to tighten up his game against the Wallabies, particularly in defensive situations.
Australia, under their Kiwi coach Robbie Deans, have reverted to the side beaten 19-14 by New Zealand in Hong Kong this month save for Hugh McMeniman replacing Dean Mumm at blindside flanker.
Hardened from their Tri-Nations campaign, it is a team sprinkled with seasoned performers and one which will fancy its chances of improving an Australian run of four defeats in their last five Twickenham appearances.
And it is their form, rather than their record at “headquarters” which has caught the eye of England captain Steve Borthwick.
“I think it is quite clear Australia have improved immeasurably,” Borthwick, still to convince some observers about his Test credentials, said. “Their pack is strong and they have shown that by winning away in South Africa and beating New Zealand.”
Deans meanwhile was expecting a well-rounded if tough contest.
“You’ve got two sides who like to play with the shackles off. It won’t be a frivolous game but it should be a game that will have everything,” he said.
Victory for England this weekend will set them up nicely for the visits to Twickenham later this month of the Springboks and the All Blacks.
Were England to beat all three southern hemisphere giants, they would assure themselves of a top four seeding for next month’s 2011 World Cup draw and stay away from hosts New Zealand in the pool phase.
Johnson, for whom the phrase “hardened pro” might have been invented, was not concerned.
“We haven’t talked about the rankings this week and we won’t talk about them,” he said. “A world ranking is not what motivates players ahead of a Test match against a side as good as Australia.”
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
‘SETTING THE TONE’: Donovan Mitchell said that their determination to dominate had nothing to do with past results, but was about a potential post-season clash The Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday boosted their NBA-best record with a 142-105 romp past the New York Knicks, tightening their grip on the Eastern Conference lead with an all-around dominant display. Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points to lead six Cavs players to score in double figures, connecting on five of seven three-pointers as Cleveland drilled 19 from beyond the arc. “I think the biggest thing was just try to set the tone early,” Mitchell said, adding that the determination to dominate had nothing to do with the Knicks’ first-round playoff win over the Cavs two seasons ago and everything to do with
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
RSS