It’s the big one this weekend as a wounded Wallabies side take on an English team that finally found their groove last weekend. Which one of these sides will take the series decider in Sydney. Darry Worthington gives his opinion on that question, below.
Australia v England
Saturday 16 July
SCG
11:55
To Win (80 Mins)
Australia
Draw
England
Lady luck has certainly not been on the Wallabies side over the last fortnight as they suffered another litany of injuries during the second Test with Cadeyn Neville and Izaia Perese sustaining serious knee injuries during the second half of the fixture, while Jordan Petaia picked up a head knock during the 25-17 defeat.
While injuries once again hampered the Wallabies’ cause, credit must go to England who played a very smart set of cards in the second Test. The tourists’ kicking game was on point with the Marcus Smith-Owen Farrell axis finally delivering the goods.
Special mention must also go to Billy Vunipoala who rolled back the years with a barnstorming display from the back of the scrum.
On to this weekend’s game now and it’s set to be an absolute belter with the two previous Tests showing there is little to choose between the sides.
Both teams need to improve certain facets of their games with the Wallabies needing to cut down on the amount of penalties they give away by improving their discipline while the English need to be more clinical with ball in hand as they have butchered a number of try scoring opportunities during this tour.
With so much on the line and both sides suffering injuries, we’re likely to see a number of changes for this one.
The Australians will be forced to shuffle their second row with Caderyn Neville and Darcy Swain both out for this one. With the duo injured, Dave Rennie has been forced to call on forgotten man of Australian rugby Lukhan Salakaia-Loto.
England are also dealing with injuries to their forward back with backroweres Sam Underhill and Jack Willis touch and go for this one while Maro Itoje may well be ruled out due to concussion.
Verdict: Australia
Both sides are contending with significant injury blows and Saturday’s fixture is fast turning into a test of depth. I think the Wallabies may just be able to edge this one should they not suffer any more injury blows in the build-up.
