Eddie Jones incredible record over Australia as England coach
Ever since he took the England coaching reins after their 2015 World Cup failure, Australian coaching master Eddie Jones seems to really have had it in for his home country.
His win percentage in all his internationals for England is an impressive 78% but in Tests against Australia, it's 100% - seven wins, seven victories.
The most extraordinary thing, though, has been the emphatic nature of those wins, with the average score over the seven encounters being 36-19.
Now, going into Saturday's Test at Twickenham, Wallabies' coach Dave Rennie will have his chance to consign the wretched five-year record of the Jones vs Michael Cheika era to history.
Here, AAP looks at how Eddie's magnificent seven victories unfolded.
No.1 - 11 June 2016 (Brisbane) Australia 28 England 39
Jones, in his first Test coaching against his home country, pumped up his team before the match by showing them videos of the infamous 1932-33 'Bodyline' Ashes series and then watched his side equal their biggest-ever margin of victory on Australian soil after recovering from conceding early tries to Michael Hooper and Israel Folau. Owen Farrell made the difference, earning 24 points with the boot.
No.2 - 18 June 2016 (Melbourne) Australia 7 England 23
Jones' men earned England's biggest-ever win in Australia but had to put in one of the great defensive shifts in a rugby Tests to repel wave after wave of Wallaby attacks. Tries for captain Dylan Hartley and Owen Farrell, who amassed 18 points, answered one from Australia captain Stephen Moore as England wrapped up the series win.
No.3 - 25 June 2016 (Sydney) Australia 40 England 44
In one of the great Anglo-Aussie encounters, Dylan Hartley's side conceded 40 points yet still won - just the fourth time that had happened in international rugby. Completing Australia's worst home series drubbing since 1971, England were outscored five tries to four but Farrell scored 24 more points with the boot, converting 26 out of his 29 kicks at goal over the three games - and Jones couldn't help smiling: "Being an Australian, I'm always grateful for what Australia have done for me - but it's certainly nice beating them 3-0."
No.4 - 3 December 2016 (Twickenham) England 37 Australia 21
At 16-13 down at halftime, with Sefanaia Naval having gone over for the Wallabies, Jones told his team they couldn't play any worse - and he was right. They roared back in a cracking game with three second-half tries from Marland Yarde, Ben Youngs and Jonathan Joseph (his second of the match) to equal England's best-ever Test-winning sequence of 14. "What time did England think kick off was?? .…" the watching Matt Giteau had crowed cheekily on Twitter when England had gone 10-0 up, only to later to have to send out a chastened follow-up: "I asked for this.. abuse is thick and fast".
No.5 - 18 November 2017 (Twickenham) England 30 Australia 6
Michael Cheika, suffering a fifth successive beating from his old sparring partner, first raged but ended up cackling in despair at the number of marginal calls that had gone against his side as two sin-binnings and two disallowed tries for the Wallabies came amid a four-tries-to-nil drubbing from England - their biggest-ever margin of victory over Australia in 108 years of the rivalry.
No.6 - 24 November 2018 (Twickenham) England 37 Australia 18
At 13-13 at halftime, there was everything to play for until England crushed an enfeebled Australian side with their second-half blitz, finally scoring four tries to Israel Folau's pair. Once again, Farrell made the difference for England, scoring a try amid his 22 point haul, although he did manage to escape a sin-binning and to avoid giving away a penalty try before halftime when he piled in with a shoulder barge on Izack Rodda.
No.7 - 19 October 2019 (Oita, Japan - RWC quarter-final) England 40 Australia 16
The biggest clash in Jones' reign at the time saw him leave an emotional Cheika a broken-looking figure after England proved dominant yet again, with two first-half tries in three minutes from Jonny May on his 50th cap helped establish a 17-9 halftime lead before a dazzling score from Marika Koroibete brought the Wallabies to within a point, only for Kyle Sinckler and Anthony Watson to offer the knockout tries along with another 20-point haul from Farrell.
Latest Comments
Generally disagree with what? The possibility that they would get whitewashed, or the idea they shouldn't gain access until they're good enough?
I think the first is a fairly irrelevant view, decide on the second and then worry about the first. Personally I'd have had them in a third lvl comp with all the bottom dwellers of the leagues. I liked the idea of those league clubs resting their best players, and so being able to lift their standards in the league, though, so not against the idea that T2 sides go straight into Challenge Cup, but that will be a higher level with smaller comps and I think a bit too much for them (not having followed any of their games/performances mind you).
fl's idea, if I can speak for him to speed things up, was for it to be semifinalists first, Champions Cup (any that somehow didn't make a league semi), then Challenge's semi finalists (which would most certainly have been outside their league semi's you'd think), then perhaps the quarter finalists of each in the same manner. I don't think he was suggesting whoever next performed best in Europe but didn't make those knockouts (like those round of 16 losers), I doubt that would ever happen.
The problem I mainly saw with his idea (much the same as you see, that league finish is a better indicator) is that you could have one of the best candidates lose in the quarters to the eventual champions, and so miss out for someone who got an easier ride, and also finished lower in the league, perhaps in their own league, and who you beat everytime.
Go to commentsIt was an odd tournament full of sides cobbled together and given strange names..as well as clearly national sides. It was for this reason hard to follow.
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