Leaking 42 points at home is ‘unforgivable’ – Jamie George

Deflated Jamie George declared his side were not up to scratch after they slumped to another dismal defeat at England headquarters.

The national skipper saw his side go down 42-37 to unfancied Australia after they blew yet another tight game.

After losing close games on the spin to New Zealand, George’s side made it a forlorn four in a row as they crashed to defeat to the ninth-ranked side in the world.

Maro Itoje had given England the lead with two minutes to go but the hosts could not seal the deal with a breakaway score from replacement Max Jorgensen giving the Wallabies the match.

England, who led 15-3 in the first quarter, face South Africa on Saturday, who arrive on the back of two World Cup wins and last year’s semi-final win over Steve Borthwick’s side and George knows his side have to step up.

Unforgivable

The hooker said: “Leaking 42 points at home is unforgivable and a large part of that is down to loss of collisions.

“They got front foot ball, they have got pretty good players out wide who made us look vulnerable.

“The blueprint of how we wanted to play was in the first 20 minutes of the game, I think we put Australia under a lot of pressure.

“Sometimes in a Test match like that you think the job is done. We took our foot off the gas. You have to give credit to Australia, they were very good tonight, but we can’t keep doing that. It will be a tough one to watch back.

“But the message is we are believing in what we are doing and we are going to have to pair up the things we are doing well.

“We are going to have a brilliant training week and we are going to believe in what we are doing. If it is close in that game too, we will continue to play with endeavour.

“There are elements of the performance we are not happy with but this is the easiest team I have ever had to captain and when we say we are going to do something we go out and do it.”

England were hamstrung by head knocks to Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso with boss Borthwick admitting he was not expecting to see Curry against the Boks.

Weight of the shirt

And the head coach, who watched his Red Rose outfit wilt at the death, claimed his team were not filling their jerseys when the pressure was on.

Borthwick said: “One of the big challenges for the England team over the last few years has been the weight of the shirt.

“It is something we have worked on to develop. It is a game we should have won and we were in a position to win.

“Multiple times we put ourselves in position to go and win the game and we didn’t. When you turn over that much ball and make a game that unstructured against a team with that much pace, you are giving them opportunities and we gave them far too many.

“No one will be more disappointed than us about that result today. Fans will be gutted and we are gutted.”

Joe Schmidt

This was a feather in the cap of Australian coach Joe Schmidt who arrived here on a hiding to nothing after one win from six in the Rugby Championship.

The credibility of next year’s British & Irish Lions tour was on the line and Schmidt’s crew showed they will be competitive against Andy Farrell’s men down under.

And they showed off their trump card, centre Joseph Sua’ali’i, who was playing his first game of professional union.

Schmidt said: “I know there were some doubts expressed about him being selected and the risk.

“I think people would now see the opportunity of involving a young man like that, particularly the way he prepared during the week. I thought he was really professional.

“He played for Australian under-18s and schoolboys. He certainly has a rugby pedigree, albeit having played a few years of professional rugby league.

“That has made him a really professional young man at 21 years old. He is incredibly diligent around his preparation and that diligence I think pays off in the way that he performs.

“He’s still finding his feet in the game. There are subtleties that are very different. But with that diligent work ethic, that professionalism and the athleticism that he possesses, I thought it was a really confidence-boosting debut.”

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