England's Autumn Nations series will kick off on Saturday afternoon against one of their greatest rivals, the Wallabies. Steve Borthwick and his team are coming into this series on the back of a brilliant tour of Argentina and the additions of a couple of new coaches. They'll be confident, and are considered by many to be the favourites, but Australia have impressed this year and actually beat England in this fixture at Twickenham last year. Joe Schmidt is leaving Australia after this series and would love nothing more than to go undefeated.
There is also extra motivation for the visitors in the form of World Cup groupings. The draw for the 2027 World Cup, which will be hosted in Australia, will be announced in just over a month and the groupings are currently up in the air. The 2027 World Cup will be the first to comprise of 24 nations which will then be split into 6 pools of 4. The current top 6 teams are, in order: South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, France, England, and Argentina. The top 5 look very safe with a decent gap to 6th, whilst Argentina are under serious threat from a couple of teams. Scotland sit 7th and are just a couple of points behind Argentina, but it is Australia that are breathing down Argentinian necks with a deficit of just 0.52 ranking points. The Wallabies will look to take maximum points with wins over the higher-ranked teams of England, Ireland and France. A win over England would be a huge first step.
So, how will the Wallabies beat England? They'll have to do it without their Europe-based stars due to the game taking place outside of the test window. That means that Joe Schmidt is unable to select the likes of: Will Skelton, James O'Connor, Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper. Despite those absences, and a couple of other injuries, the Wallabies have a very strong line-up. Valetini, McReight and Wilson have developed into one of the best back rows in the World. McReight vs Curry will be an epic battle to watch. The 9 and 10 shirts are still up in the air and will, on this occasion, be worn by Jake Gordon and Tane Edmed. Lynagh, Donaldson, Lolesio and O'Connor have all had games at fly-half without nailing down the shirt so perhaps Edmed can finally give Schmidt an obvious choice at a crucial position. Suaalii broke onto the Union scene in his first professional game in the code in last year's fixture and has only improved since. He is the big name in the back-line, but the name that people should be looking out for is Max Jorgensen. At just 21-years-old, the English-born Aussie has quickly become one of the best wingers in the game and will already be known to England fans for his winning try against England last year.
England have gone with a very interesting team to counter Australia's strengths. England's normal starting front row of, Cowan-Dickie, Genge and Stuart are all on the bench in order to take advantage of Australia's lack of depth in the front row in the final 20 minutes. Itoje and Chessum were the obvious starting duo in the second row, particularly with George Martin out for the year, but the back row is particularly intriguing. The news that Tom Willis decided to essentially end his England career by agreeing a deal with Bordeaux has thrown a real spanner in the works for England. In England's first game without him, Steve Borthwick has selected a back row that is comprised of 3 openside-flankers. Pepper, Underhill and Earl are all incredibly dynamic players who will be brilliant in defence and a nightmare at the breakdown. However, they do lack size. That could show up at line-outs, due to an absence of a 3rd jumper, and around the ruck in terms of ball-carrying. England's game will be based around turning this into a high-intensity contest that tires out Australia before Steve Borthwick unleashes his bench.
The selections in the back line are just as interesting as those in the pack. The selection at fullback was fairly straightforward with Furbank and Carpenter both injured. The real decisions begin on the wings. Borthwick selected several wingers in his squad and has put 3 in his starting XV. Tommy Freeman has had his wish granted and will line up at outside centre, which allows Borthwick to keep Tom Roebuck, who seems to be a personal favourite of his, in the starting XV whilst also bringing back Feyi-Waboso. Freddie Steward is an excellent fullback, but his inclusion means that England need a second play-maker. In this team, that man is Fraser Dingwall. His inclusion means that Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence, who both played a significant amount during the 6 nations, both miss out on the matchday squad entirely. Dingwall's inclusion also means that England will have a 9,12 and 13 that all play for the same club (Northampton) and therefore bring great continuity to the team. One would assume that including Fin Smith in that line-up would be the obvious decision, given his form and familiarity with his club teammates, but Borthwick has opted to start George Ford once again with Smith on the bench. Smith was the starter throughout the Six Nations, but had a disappointing Lions Tour whereas George Ford took his opportunity to excel for England in Argentina. The battle is still wide open, but Ford is out in front for the moment. Notably it does look like Marcus Smith is becoming an ever-distant 3rd choice, but that is a conversation for another day.
Kickoff: 3:10pm, Saturday 1st November
Venue: The Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
Watch on: TNT Sports 1
Line-ups:
England
1.Fin Baxter 2.Jamie George 3.Joe Heyes 4.Maro Itoje(C) 5.Ollie Chessum
6.Guy Pepper 7.Sam Underhill 8.Ben Earl 9.Alex Mitchell 10.George Ford
11.Immanuel Feyi-Waboso 12.Fraser Dingwall 13.Tommy Freeman 14.Tom Roebuck 15.Freddie Steward
Bench
16.Luke Cowan-Dickie 17.Ellis Genge 18.Will Stuart 19.Alex Coles
20.Tom Curry 21.Henry Pollock 22.Ben Spencer 23.Fin Smith
Australia
1.Angus Bell 2.Billy Pollard 3.Taniela Tupou 4.Nick Frost 5.Jeremy Williams
6.Rob Valetini 7.Fraser McReight 8.Harry Wilson 9.Jake Gordon 10.Tane Edmed
11.Harry Potter 12.Hunter Paisami 13.Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii 14.Max Jorgensen 15.Andrew Kellaway
Bench
16.Josh Nasser 17.Tom Robertson 18.Allan Alaalatoa 19.Lukhan Salakaia-Loto
20.Nick Champion de Crespigny 21.Ryan Lonergan 22.Hamish Stewart 23.Filipo Daugunu
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