Jeremy Guscott: England lack cool heads at key stage

This is a game England should have won – it was the next logical step in their progression under Stuart Lancaster and this will act as a big dent in their confidence.
There was a lot of talk about building Twickenham into a fortress again and they have not achieved that – they were deservedly beaten in the end by a team written off by nearly everyone beforehand.
Fair play, Australia were amazing. It was pretty similar to before they went out to Argentina in the Rugby Championship when they were given no hope and pulled off a great victory. That’s exactly what they have done at Twickenham. They seem to thrive when they are given that underdog tag and that’s a credit to them.
In the build-up, everyone was talking about Australia’s great weakness being the scrum but in fact they ended up having the better of that area. Their tighthead Ben Alexander comprehensively got the better of Joe Marler and as soon as Mako Vunipola came on England were in the ascendancy in that area.
Marler appeared to go off with a leg injury and if he was carrying a knock of any sort then surely that was affecting his scrummaging and he should have been immediately substituted rather than wait until the damage was done in the second half.
What I was encouraged by was England’s performance in the last 20 minutes. That was when they started running onto the ball a lot more, making line breaks, getting their offloads away and finding their supporting runners. Unfortunately the backs could not finish off that possession and make that advantage count, but the real question was why they were not playing like that before.
It was 14-11 at halftime and was pretty even although all the play was coming from Australia.
Even though I thought Danny Care was among England’s better players, he bears part responsibility for Australia’s try.  It was a pretty poor box kick that gave them possession, compounded by an even worse kick-chase.
That somehow left two backs, Nick Phipps and Nick Cummins, versus two forwards, Tom Palmer and Thomas Waldrom, which was only ever going to result in one conclusion: an Australian try.
England did respond well with Manu Tuilagi‘s try to go into the lead at the interval.
Berrick Barnes, however, has been in great form with the boot and those three penalties after halftime put Australia into a lead they were not going to lose.
 
The key moment, for me, was around the 60-minute mark when England won two penalties but turned down the shot on goal. It was a six-point game at that stage and in hindsight it is clear they should have taken the points on offer.
If they had kicked the first one and brought it back to 20-17, then the pressure they were creating in those final 20 minutes would have brought further penalties they could have kicked to win the game.
That was the decision Chris Robshaw made and it did not work out. You have to admire his ambition but the reality is, at Test-match level, you have to take the points when they are on offer. If England had got a try it would have been seen as a great decision, but it wasn’t so it goes down as a poor decision.
Overall there seemed to be a lack of leadership or certainly experience under that kind of pressure in the closing stages. In the 68th minute there was a clear case of white-line fever, Ben Youngs took a quick tap and England ended up getting turned over.
England need to create a call in those situations which will signify to everyone that they need to keep their cool. The tendency to take quick taps often leads to guys getting isolated; whereas they could have used one of their big ball carriers, running from deep, to make a real dent in the defence with support around him to assist.
They had a great opportunity to beat an Australian team who were mentally and physically tired, but in adversity Australia produced a great performance at Twickenham to regain the Cook Cup.
If England played like they did in the last 20 minutes for the full 80 minutes then it would have been a different story.  In that period they were playing with a great tempo and rhythm and if it was not for a couple of knock-ons they would have got a second try.
What England need is to harness that sort of performance for the visit of the Springboks next week. South Africa showed against Scotland that they are big, strong, powerful but one-dimensional and if England can recreate the tempo they showed in the last 20 minutes they can cause them some problems.
Mako Vunipola did enough when he came on to start next week, but after that I don’t feel anyone deserves to be dropped. Flood made some breaks and was kicking very well – which makes the decision not to kick those penalties all the more galling – while both Brad Barritt and Manu Tuilagi got over the gainline repeatedly. The one thing is that when Flood did make a break, he had no one on his shoulder supporting him and those support lines need to imrpove.
The focus then turns to the coaches and what I don’t think they have done yet is say to the team: “Lads, let’s play how I know you can play”. The first 60 minutes was far too structured and predictable; it was only in the last quarter of the game that they started playing with any freedom.