Australia’s Twickenham assault may determine World Cup fate

The Wallabies are struggling for a win and England are undergoing their own period of transition, 12 months before these two teams meet at the same venue in the World Cup.

This Test match has quickly become worth much greater value than many expected.

Australia heads into this match having been defeated in five of their past six Tests, the Barbarians exercise notwithstanding. They are on the verge of their worst spring tour in nearly a decade. It doesn’t make for good reading.

England aren’t doing much better with one win from their past six Tests. They got a reprieve against Samoa, but it was hardly a convincing or dominant performance.

England has come up short four times in a row against the All Blacks, something the Wallabies know a lot about, and once against South Africa.

For Samoa they decided to tinker with their fly-half, youngster George Ford coming in and Owen Farrell moving to 12. It was a decision made to try and spark their attack, with Ford the more creative of playmakers.

Ford was one of England’s best on Saturday and should be given the chance to start against Australia.

Farrell is just too one-dimensional, too predictable to be effective against the top nations. A top defender, an impressive kicker, he is not the one to ignite a backline in the same way an Aaron Cruden or a Quade Cooper can.

For all their talk and media spiel, England’s game plan is still largely the same as tradition and history demands. They might want to play with width and flair, but their strengths lie up front in the forwards.

They remain a physical, bullying team, tough to beat in contact, but with few ideas when a Plan B is needed.

Australia is still the reverse. They have the backline and halves to cut up any team, and can be brilliant at times. Their replacement 9 and 10 – Genia and Cooper – are better than most countries’ first-choice pairing. At full-back they have a world-class operator. In Kurtley Beale they have a potential match-winner off the bench or anywhere in the backline.

But their tactical kicking has been poor of late and their forward pack has lacked the desired mongrel and intimidation to get the better of northern opponents. Their scrum is still weak and they are frustratingly inconsistent.

France were strong and menacing two weeks ago. They smashed wall after wall of green and gold attack. It was the same against the Irish who were immense in defence and physically imposing.

Ireland offered little in attack apart from kick-chase-kick-chase. They scored one try from an intercept and another from a well-placed bomb. They rarely opened the Australia line up with any creative moves or ball-running.

Their plan was to unhinge with Australians with swarming pressure and suffocating tackling, and their carried it out to a tee. Force the Wallabies into mistakes. It was a close run thing, but it came off.

Both teams in the past two weeks have suffered mental blocks in finishing games, in finding a way for a late winning score. The Wallabies against France and Ireland, England against New Zealand and the Boks.

Both teams need to adopt a little of each other’s style to go to the next level. Australia needs to toughen up and meet fire with fire in the forwards. They need their scrum to be competitive and get their set piece right.

England needs to be more positive with the ball in hand and play what’s in front of them. Attack with less fear about what may go wrong and throw a little caution to the wind.

Both teams will be without two of their Islander stars, Tevita Kuridrani for the Wallabies and Billy Vunipola for England.

Whoever gets up on Sunday morning will take just that little bit of vital momentum into 2015, they’ll have less pressure and less questions to answer over the break.

Whoever loses is in for a long and painful haul ahead of a vital year. Finishing a season with a defeat, let alone with six of them in their past seven encounters, will hurt.

The battle of the styles and old rivals in London’s south-west – bring it on.

Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson