UK View: Give Smith the keys, and 'how on God's earth did Wallabies beat the Springboks?'

Eddie Jones’ tactical fluidity, including how he used No.10 Marcus Smith, and Australia’s inadequacies, dominated UK media reaction to their team’s 32-15 defeat of the Wallabies on Sunday.

Neither team sparkled after an early flurry that promised plenty, but Jones was, of course the happier of the two coaches, with Dave Rennie’s men losing a second game on the trot, and going without a try for the first time this season.

“Another win over Australia — the eighth on the trot in the Eddie Jones era — but I thought both sides rather missed their cues on Saturday night,” wrote former England coach Sir Clive Woodward in the Daily Mail.

“Not that you complain too loudly at a 17-point win over Australia — I predicted a 20-point margin before kick-off — but it was a pretty poor spectacle and offered only a tantalising glimpse of how England might expand and develop their game.

“It wasn’t helped by over officious refereeing, but at one stage in the second half it reminded me of some of the rugby we endured last autumn.

Marcus Smith (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

“England unquestionably deserved to win and that late score by Jamie Blamire put a gloss on proceedings but Eddie won’t be fooled. There needs to be a big step up against South Africa. England had some fresh young talent on view and there have been promises of a new approach but save for a few cameo moments it wasn’t really there. ”

Although Smith laid on a sharp pass for Freddie Steward to race past Kurtley Beale for the first try on seven minutes, No. 12 Owen Farrell stepped in at first receiver on occasion.

“Smith had a useful first half although having picked him to start I found it strange to see him stripped of responsibility,” said Woodward.

“The overall effect was to take Smith out of the game slightly. Elite Test rugby is very different from even top-level club rugby and you have to adapt to that but you also want to keep your basic game and responsibilities as close as possible to what you do week in week out.”

Oliver Brown, writing in The Telegraph, also called for Smith, 22, to be given a firmer hold on the reins.

“Clearly, Australia had heard all about Smith on the bush telegraph,” Brown wrote. “They hounded him at every opportunity, not least when Hunter Paisami clattered him with a fearful hit.

“The more Smith was rattled, the more he became disinclined to play his natural game. His greatest moments at Harlequins tend to come when he adapts to the situations in front of him, his confidence revealing itself in a dazzling variety of feints and grubber kicks. Here there were signs he was shackled by that most dreaded term in the lexicon: “the system”.”

Smith’s rise has invigorated English rugby.

“Never underestimate the power of the folk hero,” wrote Brown. “Eddie Jones’ England held a faltering grip on public affections until Marcus Smith, his every move encapsulating that slippery concept of flair, exhilarated Twickenham through his mere presence.

“Just as the briefest sight of Jack Grealish’s calves can trigger a surge of electricity around Wembley, the first glimpse of Smith starting here at fly-half, his shock of swept-over black hair suggestive of the extrovert within, a restless crowd appeared reassured that they would at last be treated to some dashing rugby.”

The opening try, which also featured Farrell’s involvement, was, said Jones, one of the best England have ever scored.

“Our handling, our running lines, hitting the holes was absolutely outstanding,” said Jones.

“We want to do more of that. It is not going to happen all the time, but I thought that was really promising. It was probably one of the best tries I have seen from an England side.”

Andy Bull, of the Guardian, said as much as the match heralded Smith’s arrival against a tier 1 nation, it also proved that this remains Farrell’s team for now.

“When Dave Rennie was asked earlier in the week about Eddie Jones’ decision to pick Manu Tuilagi on the wing, he said anyone watching should ignore the number on Tuilagi’s back, because he expected him to swap into the centre,” wrote Bull.

“It turns out that the same went for Smith and Owen Farrell, too. Often as not it was Farrell who was in at first receiver while Smith flitted around behind him.

“It is all part of Jones’ grand plan. He says he wants his backs to be able to mix and match positions. He calls it his “ensemble attack”. And it doesn’t half make the game complicated.

“The one constant is that they all work around Farrell. It is his team, and he is the man who dictates how they play. It looked good when it worked. But it did make it feel a little as if Smith was the kid who has been brought a new car for his birthday but has not yet been trusted with the keys to go with it.

“Instead he gets to ride in the passenger seat and watch someone who knows better teach him how to handle it. England have the makings of a fine partnership here, and an attack that could carry them through the next World Cup, but it is going to take a while for them both to grow into it.

“Jones compared the pair of them to a couple of batsmen opening the innings together for the first time. He says they will get better every time they play together.”

Australia’s poor and ill-displined showing also caught the attention of the English media.

Robert Kitson, in the Guardian, said “A golden glow lit up this dark night in south-west London, and not all of it was down to the visitors’ distinctive jerseys. England have had bigger victories over Australia but a display of twinkling promise from their new fly-half Marcus Smith and an eighth successive red rose win in this fixture since 2016 sent the majority of the crowd away optimistic about the home side’s medium-term future.

“Eddie Jones always enjoys getting one over on his former employers and, given the Covid-19 disruption on the eve of the game, this result will give him as much pleasure as any. After Ireland’s fine effort against New Zealand it would have been instructive to see the All Blacks on English turf this week, but the world champion Springboks will still be a useful barometer of the true autumnal worth of Jones’s reshaped side.

“If there is still a nagging suspicion that playing a couple more players in their best positions would make a massive difference, Smith can clearly be his country’s first-choice No 10 for many years. The Harlequin man’s first completed pass created a fine score for the man of the match, Freddie Steward, after just seven minutes, and despite some muscular attention from the Wallaby midfield he was a consistently lively presence.”

While the critism was, in the main, polite, trust curmudgeonly critic Stephen Jones of The Times to deliver some home truths to the Wallabies, as he has for decades.

“There is no such thing as a bad victory over a southern-hemisphere giant such as Australia but this Australia, in the absence of some marquee players, were abysmal,” Jones wrote.

“For a team and a country who are meant to show us the great attacking details of life in the great outdoors they were barely watchable. England had far more skill and far more ambition and had they managed to take some chances they would have put Australia away by a street or even a small village.

“But, maddeningly, England kept wasting chances, kept lacking the extra conviction. This meant that Australia were always only just behind them, and England lacked the ambition and possibly the courage to go flat out to give their opponents the backside-kicking that they so thoroughly deserved.

“And one of life’s great mysteries. I know that this Australian team was weakened but the reality is that they won two recent games against the Springboks. How on God’s earth could that have happened?”