Will Greenwood says England should beware ‘cunning and inventive Australia’
Written by News on 21/11/2018
Will Greenwood has warned England of Australia’s “cunning and invention” in the final autumn international at Twickenham.
Australia have had a difficult season having won only won four of their 12 Tests, while England finished fifth in the Six Nations and suffered a series defeat to South Africa in the summer.
England have responded well in the autumn internationals, with victories over South Africa and Japan coming either side of a narrow 15-16 defeat to New Zealand, and Greenwood believes Australia will see victory over Eddie Jones’ side as a big scalp.
Greenwood told Sky Sports News: “The Australians haven’t had a great year, and you could say England haven’t had a great year but you don’t want to end the season, end the ‘annus horribilis’, by having another home defeat.
“For Australia, a scalp against England could put a nice little cherry on the back of an indifferent season for Michael Cheika’s crowd.
“They are always full of invention, I’ve always talked about them graduating from Oxford University in a degree in cunning such is their ability to find space where there seems none.”
England are looking to build on their 35-15 win against Japan at Twickenham and end the autumn with three wins from four internationals.
“England need to go back to their high tempo and high intensity in the South Africa and New Zealand games and finish with three out of four wins,” Greenwood added.
“On the back of it, it might be a positive result, 75 per cent strike rate having had the summer and the back end of the Six Nations they had.”
England head coach Jones dropped Danny Care, Alex Lozowski and Zach Mercer from their 28-man training squad.
“There aren’t that many games to go, he’s got to make big decisions now with not a huge amount of rugby in terms of his viewing in an England jersey,” Greenwood added.
“In 2019 he’s got five Six Nations games, four warm-up games to finalise his World Cup squad.
“If you skip a beat, if you hit a pothole in the road and have a bad game, who would have predicted Danny Care, opening minutes against Japan, cruises in and big smile on his face… 48 hours later he’s thinking is my World Cup over in 2019.”
Manu Tuilagi is part of England’s squad but has not featured in the November Tests due to a groin strain, and Greenwood thinks it is unlikely he will feature at Twickenham.
“Should Manu Tuilagi play on Saturday? I just don’t see how he can having not been able to really train at full tilt or play.
“For the sake of one game, why risk him for one game when he can have two months off. If you think he’s that critical to the World Cup next year in Japan, why risk him for the sake of one game?”
(c) Sky News 2018: Will Greenwood says England should beware ‘cunning and inventive Australia’
