England’s tour of Australia will be a big test

The turnaround in the fortunes of English rugby has been significant since their humiliating group stage exit at their own World Cup, where they failed to beat both Australia and Wales. Of course, a lot has changed since then. Stuart Lancaster was inevitably replaced and Australian Eddie Jones became their first foreign head coach. Since then England have gone from strength to strength, they dominated the Six Nations which resulted in a first grand slam for 13 years after a historic victory in Paris.
Next up is a summer tour of Jones’ native Australia and he will be hoping that the gap between the sides has vastly reduced since that World Cup encounter. The Wallabies ran out 33-13 winners at Twickenham in what was a brilliant display. Bernard Foley scored 28 points as the Australians recorded their biggest ever win at the home of English rugby on the grandest stage. So the three games over the summer certainly provides the English players with a chance to make amends for that awful showing and get one over their rivals. It’s hard to envisage such heavy defeats this time around, and you can follow them on the summer tour and keep on top of all the Rugby Union betting with Coral who will have lots of markets open for the three fixtures. Before they go, England will have a home international against Wales at Twickenham in late May, a game Jones will be using to fine-tune his players before they head to the southern hemisphere.
The Australia tour kicks-off at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on the 11th June before heading to Melbourne a week later for the second test. The series will conclude in Sydney at the Allianz stadium where Jones will hope England have already clinched it! However, despite obviously wanting to win, recent speculation has surfaced that Eddie Jones may use the tour as a chance to see some of the fringe players in what will undoubtedly be a testing environment. It was rumoured that Owen Farrell and Bath’s George Ford may be given time-off as Jones looks to give everyone a chance. With the domestic season drawing to a close and Farrell‘s Saracens currently leading the Aviva Premiership table, time is running out for players to cement their place on the tour, although you cannot envisage many significant changes given the standards the current crop have set under their new management.
Whatever the line-up for that first game in Brisbane, an Australia v England game will always get the pulses racing and the hosts will provide a big test. When Jones arrived he signed a four-year deal to take him through to the next World Cup in 2019 and whilst that is the ultimate long-term aim he has, having a successful tour of Australia combined with their Six Nations success will show the world that England really do mean business.