Rugby-England replacements fire to overwhelm ragged Australia

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) -England turned to their "Bomb Squad" to get their Autumn campaign off to a convincing start with a dominant 25-7 victory over toothless Australia at Twickenham on Saturday and make it eight wins in a row.

Leading 10-7 in the second half, the introduction of five British and Irish Lions forward replacements helped England add tries through Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and Luke Cowan-Dickie to give the scoreboard a more accurate reflection of the game.

"I loved being back here and being back home," said man-of- the-match Earl. "It wasn't always the prettiest but I am glad we got a win today.

"I think the experience over the last 18 months helped coming here today. A year ago we may not have won that game, so I am really pleased."

Australia always looked like they might be in for a tough afternoon as, with the match falling outside World Rugby's window, they were without several key players not released by European clubs.

SUB-OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA

Even taking that into account, however, it was a sub-optimal Australia performance, particularly in attack where they rarely threatened and scored their sole try via a long-range interception.

England failed to turn a lot of early goalline possession into points and went ahead only after 20 minutes with a George Ford penalty.

A minute later it was 10-0 as Earl sprinted clear for the first try after Tom Roebuck outjumped Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.

Australia struggled to make any sort of impact, with no sign of their trademark backline speed and invention, and only desperate defence prevented Earl claiming a second try when he was held up by Harry Potter over the line after a sharp England move.

Potter then turned attacker with an 90-metre interception try when a home score looked certain, and England were ahead only 10-7 at halftime.

After a scrappy opening 10 minutes in the second half, Borthwick took decisive action by throwing on five forward replacements – a new front row plus Pollock, and, for his first rugby of the season, flanker Tom Curry.

The crowd welcomed the move, desperate to see England get their talented backs involved to put away a disconnected Wallaby side who offered almost no attacking threat.

But it was bleach-haired Pollock who got them out of their seats as he brilliantly scooped up a loose ball after Roebuck batted back an up and under to dive over.

Scrumhalf Mitchell scored a clever third, sniping from the back of maul, and an unstoppable 30-metre maul enabled replacement hooker Cowan-Dickie to mark his 50th appearance with the fourth.

England will face Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina over the next three weeks with real belief that they can win all three games.

Australia, desperate to try to overhaul the Pumas and snatch the vital sixth spot in the world rankings ahead of next month’s 2027 World Cup draw, will need a radical improvement as they play Italy, Ireland and France.

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond)