Four years of intensive planning and preparation by Stuart Lancaster and England could be down the drain on Saturday if Australia do what Wales did last weekend and stun Twickenham.
Michael Cheika has named his starting XV for Saturday night’s match and the former Leinster coach is pulling no punches, naming the same side that beat Fiji in Australia’s opening match, making 14 changes from the the side that dismantled Uruguay last weekend.
Japan coach Eddie Jones feels Australia are going to have too much power for England, and cited Chris Robshaw as a weak point in the English back row.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jones said:
“The breakdown will be a key area of the game on Saturday and Australia can dominate there because England simply don’t have the specialist skills to compete with them,” Jones said.
“David Pocock is an out-and-out ‘fetcher’. At the moment, there is no-one in the world better than him over the ball. Stuart Lancaster doesn’t have that sort of fetcher in his team.”
“To me, Robshaw is an outstanding club player, but at international level he just doesn’t have that point of difference. He carries okay, he tackles okay, but he’s not outstandingly good in any area. I think that is his limiting factor. He’s a good workmanlike player, but he does not have the specialist skills and the instinct as an openside that Pocock has.”
Australia XV v England
1 Scott Sio
2 Stephen Moore (captain)
3 Sekope Kepu
4 Kane Douglas
5 Rob Simmons
6 Scott Fardy
7 Michael Hooper
8 David Pocock
9 Will Genia
10 Bernard Foley
11 Rob Horne
12 Matt Giteau
13 Tevita Kuridrani
14 Adam Ashley-Cooper
15 Israel Folau
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