Australia is more used to great white shark attacks than great white-shirted rugby teams. This all-conquering England tour, consequently, has been a terrible shock to those who never envisaged Dylan Hartley’s tourists becoming the first British side since 1904 to claim a 3-0 clean sweep down under.
This increasingly menacing England squad have certainly caused a stir and sent an unequivocal message to their rivals on both sides of the Tasman. There are still ongoing improvements to be made but securing a Six Nations grand slam and an unprecedented June series win, alongside a world under-20 title and an unbeaten Saxons tour to South Africa, in five months strongly suggests English rugby is heading in only one direction.
History may yet show Jones was slightly fortunate to catch a Wallaby side in transition, without its foreign-based players and shorn of class and guile in a couple of key positions. The All Blacks, on this evidence, will be eagerly looking forward to the Rugby Championship starting in August. Overwhelmingly, though, England made their own luck at the glowing fag end of this ultra-marathon season. Convincing the players they could still prosper after 12 months of virtually ceaseless training and playing was unquestionably the biggest master-stroke by the head coach, Eddie Jones.
Jones, as ever, made it sound beautifully simple after the nine-try thriller at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday. “Whenever you coach a national team the first thing you’ve got to get the players to understand is it’s a privilege to play. Then we talked about how we were going to play, what pillars would be important to us and made sure everyone understood. Then it was a matter of practising it.
“I’ve always said there is talent in England. The job is to get that talent to perform consistently. If you look at the last four years under Stuart Lancaster, they had peak performance spasmodically. All we’ve tried to do is get consistency of attitude and preparation because then you get consistency of performance.”
There are other factors involved: the clever way in which Saracens rotate their players has helped the national team, Maro Itoje is a once-in-a-generation talent and Owen Farrell’s 23 successful kicks from 26 series attempts, including nine from 10 on Saturday, would help boost any coach’s record. But Jones is also a past master at keeping everyone hungry and was doing so again within hours of defeating the Wallabies for a third time in 15 days.
In one or two cases it seems the end may be nigh. Teimana Harrison will surely come again after being abruptly withdrawn only 31 minutes into the final Test but poor Luther Burrell may be a goner having suffered a similar experience in Brisbane. Others have been told in no uncertain terms they must work even harder or revert to the back benches. Some of the body language after the second Test in Melbourne was particularly instructive; Jones particularly loves his big, no-nonsense forwards but exchanged only perfunctory handshakes with a couple of others. The return of Manu Tuilagi and the evident promise of under-20 winners such as Harry Mallinder are about to make life even more competitive.
Those in their leader’s good books, however, can scarcely believe their luck, particularly the survivors from the failed World Cup campaign. “I was pretty low at that point but, when Eddie came in, you knew straight away we had a guy who we absolutely wanted to play for,” the Leicester scrum-half, Ben Youngs, said.
“He has been unbelievable at instilling confidence in this squad. I’ve been on summer tours with England before and it has almost been an end-of-year getaway. The shift in mind-set – coming over here and actually trying to do something – has been incredible and really refreshing. I think it just shows his experience as a coach.”
This England team certainly thinks smarter and appears more resilient under pressure. Aside from Farrell’s accuracy and the impressive rehabilitation of several England pack members – not least James Haskell, Dan Cole and Chris Robshaw – there is much more collective clarity. “There is a real understanding about what we are as a side,” Youngs said. “Eddie is just so quick in how he reads the game and reacts. When you go out there’s not a sense of invincibility but a sense of real confidence that the work has been done and you can just go out and play.”
It is worth remembering, of course, that England have not been the sole beneficiaries of Jones’s golden touch this season. Had he retired from Test rugby immediately after masterminding Japan’s stunning win against South Africa in Brighton in September last year, his coaching CV would already have been second to none.
Few realised he was only just getting started, with numerous other glittering opportunities now beckoning both him and England. The winning sequence now stretches to 10 games – nine of them under Jones – and they can equal the longest run in their history by winning their four autumn internationals at Twickenham.
It is a very different story in the Wallaby camp where a downcast Michael Cheika conceded his team need to get fitter. “There will be plenty of people looking to put the boot in but I’m ready for that,” he said. “The people I feel most for are the supporters. We have let them down.”
It is better to reflect on that, perhaps, than the ultimate Aussie horror show: an Eddie Jones-inspired England hoisting the 2019 World Cup.
Australia Folau; Haylett-Petty, Kuridrani, Toomua (Leali’ifano, 68), Horne (Naiyaravoro, 68); Foley, Phipps; Slipper (Sio, 59), Moore (capt; Polota-Nau, 62), Kepu (Holmes, 59), Skelton (Palu, 52), Simmons (Coleman, h/t), Fardy, Hooper, McMahon.
Tries Foley, Haylett-Petty, Hooper, Folau, Naiyaravoro. Cons Foley 3. Pens Foley 3.
England Brown; Watson, Joseph, Farrell, Nowell; Ford, Youngs (Care, 54); M Vunipola (Mullan, 80) Hartley (capt; George, 64), Cole (Hill, 68), Kruis (Launchbury, 62), Itoje, Robshaw (Clifford, 54), Harrison (Lawes, 31), B Vunipola (Daly, 75).
Tries Cole, Brown, B Vunipola, George. Cons Farrell 3. Pens Farrell 6.
Referee N Owens (Wales). Att 44,063.
