Sports Mole previews Saturday’s friendly clash between England and Australia, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Saturday’s triple-header in the 2024 Autumn Internationals will get underway at the iconic Twickenham Stadium where England will be playing host to Australia.
This year, all of the Autumn Tests featuring the Wallabies will garner significant interest, with the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia now on the horizon.
Match preview
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England will be determined to return to winning ways here after kicking off their Autumn series last weekend with a 24-22 defeat to New Zealand in a match which many criticised the Red Rose’s tactical decisions.
Indeed, Steve Borthwick‘s side were leading the match against the All Blacks by eight points and looked to be on their way to a famous victory, but their decision to try and see out the match cautiously rather than go for the jugular ultimately came back to haunt them.
The England head coach received significant backlash particularly for the timing of his changes in personnel, especially the decision to remove Marcus Smith and Ben Spencer while his team were in a very strong position.
The result last week was also in keeping with the team’s recent tendency of building strong leads only to falter in the closing stages – the Red Roses conceded only a single penalty in the entire first half against the All Blacks, but by the final whistle, they have given away a further five, four of which came in the final quarter of the match.
Both these sides are in desperate need of a positive result here having lost four of their last five Tests this year, but England have undoubtedly put in the better performances of late, beating the mighty Ireland in the Six Nations back in March and running the All Blacks to the wire in each of their recent matchups.
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Meanwhile, it has been a tough year for Australian rugby and its fans, who have seen their side fail to progress beyond the group stage of a World Cup for the first time, as well as receive the Wooden Spoon in the Rugby Championship, all in the space of under 12 months.
The Wallabies’ poor results of late have now seen them drop to ninth place in the IRB world rankings, but their decline is a part of broader issues affecting rugby in Australia, such as financial struggles and a lack of competitive domestic matches
Joe Schmidt has dedicated his first year as head coach to transforming and revitalising the team, attempting to address the damage left by Eddie Jones, while simultaneously trying to remove any ineffective elements to rebuild a stronger squad.
However, the major issue for Schmidt is that, unlike England, his team has continued to find new ways to lose, whether by being overwhelmed early in the game or faltering in the final moments.
The one thing that the Wallabies are upbeat about in the lead-up to this match, though, is the emergence of box-office recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who is being backed to star on the biggest stage.
England form (all competitions):
Australia form (all competitions):
Team News
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Borthwick has made a tweak to his midfield from the team he sent out last weekend, with Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade switching positions, as the former will now wear the number 13 jersey and the latter moves to inside centre.
Marcus Smith starts ahead of George Ford and there are two alterations to the bench, with Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ollie Sleightholme ready to make their first appearances in the Autumn Nations Series.
As mentioned, 21-year-old Suaalii will make his debut for the Wallabies in the number 13 jersey, and he is the only change to the side that faced the All Blacks in their final match at the Rugby Championship.
He will be joined in midfield by Len Ikitau, while behind them, Tom Wright continues at fullback, with Andrew Kellaway and Dylan Pietsch operating down the flanks, and Noah Lolesio and Jake Gordon complete the backfield.
England starting lineup: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Sleightholme
Australia starting lineup: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen
We say: England 32-17 Australia
While England have allowed results to slip from their grasp in recent times, those were against opponents that have the personnel to turn games around, which is something that the Wallabies are lacking right now.
The hosts would have taken plenty of lessons away from their defeat last week and we feel they will act on them in this one, en route to a fairly convincing victory.
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