I was joined by England Rugby fan, Tom, who gave his verdict on England’s Autumn Nation Series games.
England returned to international games with the Autumn Nations Series games against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan. England lost their first 3 games against NZ, SA and AUS, before turning their luck around by emerging victorious against Japan.
England started their Autumn Nation Series with a Home Fixture against one of the world’s best, New Zealand. It was a very close encounter between both sides, but the All Blacks came out on top. When talking to Tom about the game against New Zealand, he emphasised “New Zealand are a top team and England don’t have the quality in the squad really to see out wins against teams like them”.
After England’s defeat to NZ, their attention turned towards the game against reigning World Champions, South Africa. Yet again, England fell short against the Springboks, and then confirming back-to-back losses in the Autumn Nations Series. Tom also emphasised that “It was always going to be a challenge playing the World Champions, it’s never an easy game.”.
Looking to turn their fortunes around after back-to-back losses, England focused then on the upcoming game against Australia, which even with the home support at Twickenham, another loss. Tom went on to say, “It was a poor 3 games for England, they gave away too many penalties, which were silly mistakes and errors.” which then led to Australia taking advantage of it which led England to their 3 successive defeats in the series.
England now onto their final game, after 3 successive defeats, finally turned their fortune around with a convincing win against Japan. Tom was happy with the result, but also iterated that “Japan’s global ranking isn’t the greatest, a win is a win, but we need to also do it against higher calibre teams such as New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.”.
After their win against Japan, England concluded their below-par Autumn Nation Series. After many questions regarding how England played towards the start, England finally showed their class and performance against Japan. England National players now turn their attention back to Premiership Rugby, before their return to the Guinness Six Nations in February.
