Australia vs. England: Score, Reaction from 2016 International Tour Test, Game 3
England completed a whitewash in their 2016 tour of Australia, beating the Wallabies 44-40 at the Sydney Football Stadium in their breathless third Test on Saturday, with the two sides sharing nine tries.
A thrilling match saw both sides exchange the lead throughout. Dan Cole opened the scoring for England before Bernard Foley and Dane Haylett-Petty responded with tries of their own. Mike Brown put Eddie Jones' side back in contention before half-time.
Billy Vunipola and Michael Hooper exchanged early tries after the restart, as did Israel Folau and substitute Jamie George midway through the second half, but despite Taqele Naiyaravoro's try at the death, Australia could not catch their opponents.
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Neither side will be proud of their defensive display here, but both attacked well and repeatedly took the opportunities their opponents presented. Owen Farrell was crucial, kicking 24 points for the visitors.
England capped a strong start with a try, Cole scrambling over from close range after some good work by Ben Youngs and Mako Vunipola.
The Wallabies hit back immediately, though, after a missed tackle from Jack Nowell allowed Foley to charge over before converting himself.
Australia continued to build pressure as England repeatedly missed tackles and soon put themselves ahead after they worked the ball to Haylett-Petty in the corner. ESPN Scrum's Tom Hamilton noted the visitors' struggles without James Haskell, who was replaced in the starting lineup by Teimana Harrison:
Farrell reduced the deficit with a penalty following a scrum at Australia's 22, but Foley quickly replied with one of his own.
England clawed their way back in front soon after, though, when Brown went over after latching onto a delightful pass over the top from Anthony Watson.
The Daily Mail's Will Kelleher and BT Sport pundit Ugo Monye hailed the full-back:
With the final kick of the half, another penalty saw the hosts enter the break with the narrowest of leads at 18-17.
It didn't last long. Minutes into the second half, a miscued Australian lineout led to a scrum five yards out, and from there, Vunipola crashed over in the corner. Farrell was unable to convert but added a penalty soon after to make amends.
The end-to-end game continued at full throttle, and it was of little surprise when Hooper wriggled through to restore parity, per Hamilton:
In between two more Farrell penalties, Matt Toomua burst through England's line before expertly handing off to Folau to go over once more.
Some loose play at the back from the Wallabies in the 66th minute—and a delightful pass from George Ford—opened up space for George, who deflected the ball over the line with his knee before pouncing on it to give the visitors the lead once more.
Farrell added two more penalties either side of a Folau kick to open up an unassailable lead in the final minutes, though that didn't stop Naiyaravoro forcing his way over for one last try.
England were poor in defence but showed tremendous resilience to win, and the whitewash shows how far they've come from last year's disastrous World Cup campaign—they'll continue to grow under Jones' management.
As for Australia, they were more clinical in their attacking play here but will need to pick themselves up after coming up short in all three games.
Post-Match Reaction
Per EnglandRugby.com, Jones was delighted with the result but less so with the performance:
"They showed fitness, toughness and they were brave. It’s a great start for us, but only the start, we realise that.
If we are going to be the best side in the world, which we are aiming to be we’ve got to be much-more consistent but we will get that over the next three years.
[...]
We are not happy with our performance, we are happy with the result but we let four tries in today and we should not do that.
"
Meanwhile, Nick Phipps revealed what Australia coach Michael Cheika said to his players when he gathered them in a circle after the match, per Fox Sports' Sam Worthington:
"Cheik was saying there "that’s not the end, that’s definitely not the end for us."
We’ve been in bad positions like that, the Wallabies, all through the ages, and we’ve always bounced back.
We know that there’s a big Rugby Championship coming up and I know that every single one of those Wallaby boys is stinging and they will be for a while.
Cheik just let us know that the only people that are going to be able to get us out of that are the people in that circle over there.
"
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