Eddie Jones made his debut for Guy Porter and Tommy Freeman with Jack van Portvliet also coming in at fly-half. Never a dull moment when it comes to Jones’ England selections… The debate will rage, and yet this is a side capable of squaring the series. Resourceful and tough, Porter was one of the most important players in Leicester Tigers’ triumphant Premiership campaign. Van Poortvliet played a major role, building on a breakthrough 2020-21 campaign. Freeman is an extremely exciting talent. No matter the personnel, you think this game is a defining moment for Jones. As Austin Healey writes in the Telegraph’s latest column this week, at times “Jones has looked impossible to remove – as Boris Johnson used to be… If England play well and win and his youngsters play, then he stays. if lose, I think Eddie’s probably gone.” England are playing to avoid a fifth straight defeat and are also coming to terms with the collapse of their eight-Test winning streak against the Wallabies. “I was surprised and I thought they were better than we realized they would be. That was probably a bit naive on our part. Good for them,” England coach Ellis Genge said yesterday. “What are we going to do to turn it around? Find out Saturday. Go harder. We’ve got to be better all around. We’ve got to get better because we lost. We’re not going to get cold feet. “We’ve just got to get better overall – I know that’s a vague way of putting it – but we’ve got to be better in all aspects. We were five per cent away everywhere, which cumulatively makes a big difference. ” We don’t think we were miles away from this. They were good, really good, and at the top level you get punished for anything.
