'They're very, very good': ailing Wallabies praised

The Wallabies’ woeful afternoon at Twickenham has prompted plenty of derision and criticism from their hosts - but one England stalwart has been quick to jump to their defence after the 45-22 drubbing.

Vice-captain Jamie George believes his side’s record-breaking points haul against Australia was down much more to England’s excellence than the visitors producing a seriously off-colour performance.

He even predicted Australia would underline their quality before the Nations Championship concludes by the end of the month.

“I thought they played well today,” said hooker George, when asked by AAP about Australia’s performance.

“I genuinely thought that they were pretty good across the across the whole. There were a lot of tough contests out there.

“We’ve got to give ourselves a little bit of credit here. When you win convincingly, you often talk about the opposition maybe not showing up, but maybe the key here is to focus on how we were able to not let them play their game.

“Because they’re a very, very good team, and I think they’ll show that throughout this autumn.”

George was certainly right about England suffocating the Australian attack from the start, with coach Steve Borthwick left beaming about the extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented statistic that his side missed only two tackles out of 83 in their exceptional first-half display.

But George’s more-than-diplomatic verdict on Australia’s third-straight 20-plus points defeat was definitely not shared by other distinguished English critics.

At one point during the Wallabies’ feeble first-half display, former England flyhalf Paul Grayson, commentating on BBC radio, likened the shambolic display to that of a pub side, joking it was like watching a “Dog and Duck XV”.

English newspaper verdicts were equally harsh, with The Times calling Les Kiss’s side dismal and the Guardian noting: “This was a woeful Wallabies performance, as bad as anything served up in recent memory ? the kind that will shake executives to the core with a home World Cup tournament less than 12 months away.”

The statistics told a sorry tale, with the Wallabies bested in every area - more missed tackles (28-19), more penalties given away (11-7), more turnovers conceded (19-15) and fewer metres made (622m-419m).

The Wallabies have now conceded 176 points in their latest Tests against South Africa, New Zealand (twice) and England, the most they’ve coughed up in any four-match sequence in their 127-year history.

“The biggest tell in games of this level is how much energy and effort that players are putting in, and Australia were operating at about 20 per cent,” former England winger Chris Ashton told the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

“It was almost a carbon copy of last season (a 25-7 England win). I just can’t get my head around it. We keep trying to find positives for Australia, and that they’re moving in the right direction, but I ain’t seeing it.

“And they keep signing rugby league players. This Suaalii gamble, (I) dread to think how much he gets paid. He doesn’t look like a ... international rugby union player to me.”