England v Australia: From rugby zeros to conquering heroes in 80 minutes

UNDER FIRE: England captain  Chris Robshaw and coach Stuart Lancaster

A WEEK of recriminations over England's humbling by Wales has done nothing to ease the pressure on skipper Chris Robshaw and his beleaguered Rugby World Cup troops.
The Twickenham inquest has merely cranked up the pressure on the men the media and the fans hold responsible for the sweet chariot crashing on the final bend. And if they shoot themselves in the foot again against Australia tomorrow (Saturday), Robshaw and coach Stuart Lancaster could well find themselves travelling home with their opponents. To Botany Bay.
If England's fickle fans have not already gunned down the suffering sheriffs, that is.
One of the starkest after-match contrasts between St George and the conquering Dragons was the reaction of the ostensibly 'British' media to Wales's 28-25 victory. In their overseas edition, the nation's top-selling tabloid scarcely gave Sam Warburton's wounded heroes credit for their unexpected second-half comeback. Instead, Welsh, Scottish and Irish expat readers had to endure five pages in The Sun on England's demise, two of which were devoted to former captain Will Carling sticking the knife into Robshaw and Lancaster.

Those looking for a tribute to the injury-decimated Welsh's unlikely victory at England HQ by had to settle for a few short paragraphs on their mouting injury problems plus assistant coach Sean Edwards' revelation of just how much the result meant to everyone in the Principality.
Edwards, once a never-say-Dai English rugby league hero, said: “At Sunday mass, the priest came out and put his hands in the air to celebrate. That's when you know you are making a difference to the nation.''
Carling's condemnation of England's decision to go for a match-winning try rather than salvage a point from a 28-28 draw is rich, coming as it does from a man whose decisions, by his own confession, cost England the 1990 Grand Slam.
Had Robshaw's spurning of a three-point penalty produced the last-gasp victory he and his team were aiming for, the media would have him up alongside Martin Johnson today as an England all-time legend. And Lancaster would be licking his lips at the prospect of emulating Sir Clive Woodward, the coach who led the nation to the 2003 World Cup.
Beat Australia, as Woodward and his captain Johnson did in the 2003 World Cup Final, and last weekend's cock-up will in just 80 minutes be completely forgiven, if not forgotten.
Regardless of yesterday's Wales v Fiji result, England can still make it to the knockout stages. But it will take a monumental effort to beat a Wallabies team that beat the mighty All Blacks in a Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney just a few weeks ago.
Until Wales replaced them this week, the Wallabies were officially ranked No.2 in the world behind the All Blacks. Michael Chieka's men will have just one target at Twickenham tomorrow – and that is to achieve the equivalent of what their cricketing countrymen failed to do this summer.
By putting the boot into the ashes of English rugby.

Japan's rest-case scenario

THE challenge of peaking twice in just four days proved too much for rugby's greatest giant-killers – much to the delight of a Scotland team who caught poor Japan on the rebound at Gloucester last week.
It was quickly apparent that a fresh Scottish side playing their first game of the tournament would be too great an obstacle for the shock conquerors of mighty South Africa.
Scotland's 45-10 victory also highlighted the unfairness of a system that gives some teams up to three days more rest between games than others.
Ironically, England have had the best deal of all – with at least a week between each of their three games so far.
Their conquerors Wales, on the other hand, were given just five days to recover before facing the physical might of Fiji last night (Thursday) with the longest list of injuries in the competition.Japan suffered more than any other nation, their 96-hour recovery period after the Springboks match also involving a venue switch from Brighton to Gloucester.
All of which makes a powerful case for the organisers of the next Rugby World Cup in Japan to balance the recovery time of all competing nations.
The hosts of RWC 2019 certainly won't argue with that one.