Autumn Internationals

Well after a good series of autumn internationals, we finally got to see how the Northern hemisphere stood in the world currently. There were a few highs but mostly lows. One of the main things of the series, was the amount of bans that were handed out to the Southern Hemisphere teams! The series started out with a convincing win over Fiji for England and they showed a lot of youthful promise an they were the best they have been for a few years… however then came the the test of Australia and with the pressure, brought a very poor performance from England and they looked as though they had never seen a rugby ball before! The final score was 20-14 to Australia with the only try from England coming from Manu Tuillangi (debatable whether it should have been given). Next came the huge challenge of a South Africa side that were unbeaten in their series so far and they were looking to dominate at Twickenham. The match was close and an England win looked very plausible. But then came a shocking decision from the captain Chris Robshaw where he decided to go for the 3 points rather than the corner and then this decision led to England losing by one point, however they were getting much better! Finally brought the unbeaten New Zealand and a huge challenge. England performed outstandingly and there were stand-out performances from Manu Tuillangi, Joe Launchbury and Tom Wood. England then went on to have a convincing win of 38-21 but it should have been more.
By James Allison

Originally posted: 10/12/2012