England have handed the Wallabies a 45-22 hiding at Twickenham, scoring seven tries early on Monday morning (AEDT) to post their highest score against Australia in a Test.
The defeat is the Wallabies’ third in a row and means they are mathematically out of contention for the Nations Championship final, ABC Sport reported. England have now beaten Australia in 12 of their last 14 meetings.
Jamie George opened the scoring from a rolling maul before Ryan Lonergan kicked a penalty. Ollie Chessum and Joe Heyes then crossed for England, the latter while Angus Bell was in the sin bin for a hip-drop tackle on Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, as the hosts went 19-3 up.
Max Jorgensen’s intercept try on the stroke of half-time cut the margin to 19-10, but Jack van Poortvliet scored soon after the restart and back-rower Henry Pollock, brought on as a makeshift winger, scored twice in quick succession to make it 38-10, BBC Sport reported.
Filipo Daugunu and Jeremy Williams scored late tries for Australia before Ben Spencer intercepted a Daugunu offload to seal England’s seven-try win. Fin Smith kicked five conversions, while Lonergan landed two conversions and a penalty, according to Rugby Australia.
Read more: Rob Valetini Benched as Wallabies Name Team to Face England
‘We weren’t physical enough’
“England put us under the pump,” Wallabies captain Harry Wilson said after the match, according to ABC Sport. “We weren’t physical enough, we didn’t slow their ball down, we were just playing from behind.”
Coach Les Kiss said: “We probably hurt ourselves a little bit. They were pretty clinical with what they did.”
“I thought the first half we went into some pretty bad habits, went a bit narrow … second half we certainly put some things together,” Kiss said. “But we’ve got to do better in the early parts [of the game] and be able to give ourselves a chance.”
Fraser McReight played his 50th Test, while Rob Valetini came off the bench early in the second half.
What’s next
The Wallabies face Scotland at Murrayfield next weekend. “We’ve got seven days to just take some feedback from this game and make sure we’re a lot better,” Wilson said.
Read more: Kurtley Beale Recalled to Wallabies Squad for Spring Tour
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