Winning Is The Only Option - England vs. Australia

“Against any side that like to attack like Australia do, and that is the heartbeat of their game, you have to try to stamp your authority. It’s all about kick-chase pressure, breakdown pressure and set-piece pressure. It’s the whole combination coming together. We’ve got to have a big say and not let them do what they want to do.”

Those are the words of England's Andy Farrell, they are plain and clear for all to see in black and white on a page and they highlight to us all, in the smallest of nutshells, England’s intention for 80 minutes tomorrow afternoon. The execution of that game plan lies with twenty three faces of men that we all know fairly well by this, the final hurdle, in the 2014 QBE International Series. I’ll save the answering the question as to whether it has been a successful series until Saturday evening or maybe even Sunday morning. At this point in time, on the eve of a mighty clash with the Wallabies many roads and opinions will be gravitating towards the word 'no', however if England produce the type of rugby that we all know that they can do tomorrow, for 80 minutes, not 40 or 50, then the answer may change to 'no... but'.

Once again going into this clash our focus drifts towards the centre of the field, George Ford deservedly has retained the starting 10 jersey after an assured and mature performance (did we expect anything else?!) against Samoa however this week he has Billy Twelvetrees outside of him. Billy has come in for his fair share of criticism over the past season or so focused around one word ‘inconsistency’. Gloucester’s captain has brilliant days and days, where for whatever reason things don’t click and Saturday of course needs to be one of the former. Interestingly Stuart highlighted that he gave Billy some ‘reasonably strong feedback’ at the start of the camp and feels the areas he was told to work on ‘key decision making and skill execution at the line’ have improved. This improvement along with his form in training has warranted another start. Distribution will be the name of the game from both Ford & Twelvetrees, it has to be, along with a cleanly and precisely executed kicking game. Do that and England go a fair way to eradicating some of their difficulties this Autumn - for opening up the prowess out the back could cause Australia issues.

Throwback to the Wallabies last visit to HQ

Precision will be king, for both sides not just England and it will be a battle of nerves out there on the Twickenham turf. Australia are facing the prospect of three losses on the bounce, not the way Michael Cheika envisaged tenure starting and England are facing the prospect of gaining just one solitary win from an Autumn Series that was supposed to deliver at the very least two, ideally three. Australia for their losses have looked sprightly, the most deadly of their weapons Tevita Kuridrani wont’ take to the field due to an ankle injury. For that every English man in the country should breathe a little sigh of relief as dynamic is almost too softer adjective to describe Kuridrani. The two skippers will need to pay close attention to each other, from an English perspective Michael Hooper leads from the front and must be pacified.

Tomorrow afternoon winning really is the only option for England, for many reasons, first and foremost to do themselves justice and to showcase to us all exactly how well this England side can play rugby. Of course recording a win will create a memory that will last the 315 days until they meet again next however the focus for now must remain on the here and now. England have the capability and they have the personnel, tomorrow they must deliver, there isn't an alternative.