The Sunday Times Sport - UK (2021-11-14)

2GS The Sunday Times November 14, 2021 5

Smith impressed on

his first start this

autumn. It was his

delayed pass that

allowed Steward to

pick the gap for

England’s try

2015

The last time England
lost to Australia

For more than half a decade, now,

England have been looking over

their shoulders and wondering who

was going to catch the ball. It seems

now that they have the answer.

In Eddie Jones’s six years as

England coach, he started off

wanting a defensive rock at the

back, then he wanted a more

attacking influence and what he

really needs now, because of the

way the game has gone, is someone

who can catch. If you were to perm

all three attributes then, on

yesterday’s performance, you

might come up with something like

Freddie Steward.

The Leicester full back doesn’t

look like a novice though he

certainly is one. He is 21, had only

won three caps before yesterday

and none of those against Tier One

nations. In the biggest game of his

life, though, he looked the part. If

he carries on like this, he is surely

going to play it for years to come.

It is a curious quirk of this

curious game that it meanders in

different directions and as the

seasons change, it asks different

questions of its participants. In

2014, England had the best full back

in Europe, in Mike Brown. By 2018,

though, Jones’s reading of the game

was that England now needed more

pace, a sharper edge and a No 15

who could link better in a

lightening counter-attack.

Elliot Daly was the man who

fitted the description though his

All-rounder Steward here to stay

early collywobbles under the high

ball never left him and the longer

they endured, the more the game

adapted to one where the main job

of a full back was the part of the

game where Daly was most unsure.

For England, the answer to

rugby’s new conundrum had been

developed in Norwich and was

honed in Leicester. Right from the

start at Twickenham, it looked

ready for international rugby.

Steward calls the high ball his

“prized possession”. He took his

first one early on here and,

thereafter he didn’t spill a thing. His

focus is unswerving. He doesn’t

mind if he has to take man and ball

simultaneously. He just seems to

lock onto it. It clearly helps that he

is 6ft5in and can climb high into the

contest, but his mastery of the skill

is about technique too and a

triumph of confidence and courage

over fear.

This challenge of picking the high

ball out of the sky has been

emphasised in recent seasons as

kick-chasers have learnt to turn the

pressure up and kicks have got

better at making the ball move in

the air. Manu Tuilagi has played

professional rugby for more than a

decade. Nevertheless, the minute

Jones moves him onto the wing, the

immediate question is: will he be

able to take the high ball? We soon

learnt the answer was no.

Steward has clearly been

encouraged to compete for restarts

where possible. When Australia

managed to get one to Tuilagi,

though, he moved eagerly to collect

it on the run and spilt it. One of the

reasons that England managed to

hang on to this narrow victory

yesterday was that Australia never

got the high ball to fall to him again.

If Steward looks the business for

now, the issue that might dog him

further into his career is his pace.

What happens when rugby changes

and the England coach decides he

wants someone who looks more

like Daly again?

These are but early days, but

Steward hasn’t displayed quite the

gas of Daly or quite the instinct to

ghost into the back division. Well,

yesterday he showed that whatever

the pace he has been blessed with,

he can certainly read an attack and

play his role.

It took only seven minutes for

this to become apparent yesterday.

England had good early ball, Owen

Farrell linked with Marcus Smith

with Tuilagi running the decoy.

Smith then fed Steward who timed

his run to perfection.

He is a powerful runner and he

broke through the gap but still had

work to do with Kurtley Beale

covering. The finish, then, was

ridiculously easy. Steward stepped

off his left foot and, the moment he

went, Beale barely got a hand on

him. He certainly couldn’t slow him

down — and therein did England

stretch into a lead that they would

never relinquish.

Steward finished the evening

with a nice announcement on the

big screen — that he had been

awarded the man of the match.

That may boost his confidence

further. The Springboks are next

and if there is one team on the

planet who can dent it, it is them.

For now, though, Steward looks

ready to claim his prized possession

from the skies, no matter who has

put it there.

Leicester man provides

what Jones has craved

• a full back strong in

attack and defence

OWEN

SLOT

HEAD-TO-HEAD

England

wins

26

Australia

wins

25

Draws

1

Biggest England wins

30-6, Twickenham, November 2017

40-16, Oita (World Cup), October 2019

Biggest Australia win

76-0, Brisbane, June 1998

to eight and said:

“Revenge — that is a

nice media line but

they are a different

team and we are a

different team.

“They [South Africa]

are the World Cup

champions and we

are not. It is going to

be an important Test

and we want to finish

off the autumn well —

we will see it as a final

and we want to take

them on. We will have

to play differently to

beat them.

“Joe Marler will be a

possibility for us and

we know what he can

do. We had a disrupted

week with two Covid

positives and a young

prop, Bevan Rodd,

who made his debut

after one training

session against a bloke

who had won 113 caps

[James Slipper] and

that is a remarkable

effort. I thought the

first try was one of the

best I have seen from

an England side and

we want to do more of

that but it won’t

happen all the time.

The competition in this

squad is red hot.”

Farrell said: “We did

what we needed to do

and playing against

Australia is always a

big game. We take

what we did today but

know we can be better

than that.”

The flanker Courtney

Lawes added: “We are

going to need to be

better for sure,

especially in terms of

the penalty count,

because that’s an area

against South Africa

where we would be in

a fair bit of trouble.”

SOUTH AFRICA TEST

NOT ABOUT REVENGE

BUT WE WANT TO TAKE

THEM ON, WARNS JONES

The head coach Eddie

Jones has said revenge

for England’s 2019

World Cup final defeat

will not be the

motivating factor

against South Africa

next weekend and

confirmed that the

prop Joe Marler will be

available, despite only

completing his Covid

isolation period on

Thursday (Chris Jones

writes).

However, there

are doubts over the

captain Owen Farrell

(ankle) and the hooker

Jamie George (knee),

with both players

expected to undergo

scans to determine the

extent of the injuries

which forced them off

against Australia.

Jones extended his

winning run with

England over Australia

Farrell urged

England to improve

against Springboks

OCT 30

Scotland 60 Tonga 14

Wales 16 New Zealand 54

NOV 6

Ireland 60 Japan 5

Italy 9 New Zealand 47

England 69 Tonga 3

Wales 18 South Africa 23

France 29 Argentina 20

NOV 7

Scotland 15 Australia 13

NOV 13

Italy 16 Argentina 37

Scotland 15 South Africa 30

Ireland 29 New Zealand 20

England 32 Australia 15

NOV 14

1pm France v Georgia

3.15pm Wales v Fiji

NOV 20

1pm Italy v Uruguay

Scotland v Japan

3.15pm England v South Africa

5.30pm Wales v Australia

8pm France v New Zealand

NOV 21

2.15pm Ireland v Argentina

lAll matches are live

on Amazon Prime except

for Ireland fixtures, which

are on Channel 4

AUTUMN

INTERNATIONALS

DON’T MISS

THE RUCK

The latest edition of our rugby

podcast, in which the panel

review the weekend’s action,

can be downloaded free of

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THESUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK/SPORT

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND

centre, preferably inside centre, and

part of me would choose the nearest

replica to Tuilagi that England have. I

would play Owen Farrell at fly half,

and let loose the same back-row men

in Sam Underhill and Tom Curry,

but I would think seriously about

leaving one of them on the bench so

that Billy Vunipola or Alex

Dombrandt can start alongside

Courtney Lawes in the back row.

I would rein in those attacking

instincts which would merely leave

England prey to the Springbok

jackallers and jackals.

And above all, I would force

England to understand what will

be in South African hearts and

minds as they take the field — it

will be to demolish England

meadow by meadow and all their

aspirations to greatness and

progress.

Frankly, the World Cup can go

and lose itself, next week is the

World Cup for England’s momentum

and aspirations, and it will be an

offence bordering on the criminal

if they pass up on that opportunity.