England vs Australia: Eddie Jones’s side risk being seriously undercooked for Rugby World Cup quarter-final

Two games in 23 days is unheard of at a Rugby World Cup, and after a weekend of sun, sea and shopping, are England in the right frame of mind to hit the ground running against the Wallabies?

In the slog of a Rugby World Cup, breaks along the way are usually very welcome. In what is a long and punishing two-month campaign, players tend make the most of any time off to let body and mind heal.

But for England, this World Cup feels very different. After two relatively low-key matches in four days against Tonga and the USA, they have subsequently had nine-day and 14-day breaks between matches – two games in the space of 23 days. It is unheard of at this stage of the tournament.

The problem this causes is that while the squad will head into the knockout stage as fresh as they possibly can be, they risk not being in the right frame of mind to hit the ground running. Mentally, they could be severely undercooked to face Australia this Saturday.

“The lads got up to different things,” said assistant coach Neal Hatley on Monday, as England departed their makeshift training camp in Miyazaki following their emergency Typhoon Hagibis-avoidance plans. “Some lads went to the beach, spent a few hours there, some played golf and a few went to the shopping mall.

“Quite a few lads have used these couple of days as really good recovery days to have a reset and get some good sleep in and be ready to go again this week.”

This sounds all rather lovely, were it the itinerary for a fan in Japan and not a 31-man squad that already has questions lingering over its mental resilience, in particular in the biggest matches that now lie ahead.

And this is where the impact of Typhoon Hagibis on rugby matters alone are much bigger than first thought. Eddie Jones was initially delighted to see their game against France called off, suggesting the “typhoon Gods” were smiling down on his team. But below the surface, it has cost him the chance to test out a number of scenarios that needed looking at. Is Owen Farrell a better player at fly-half? Can Mako Vunipola start a match or does he need more fitness work? Who’s the better No 8 out of Mark Wilson and Tom Curry if Billy Vunipola doesn’t recover in time to face the Wallabies.

These are all questions that should have been answered against France, but weren’t.

On the flip side, Australia are battle-hardened, in good health and fired up by a six-game losing streak against England. Heck, Michael Cheika may actually fall on a first-choice fly-half out of Bernard Foley, Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua this week, but then England can hardly bleat on about consistency at No 10.

That’s because whether he wants it or not, Jones is now stuck with George Ford, with Farrell outside him. That is in no way a barb aimed at Ford, who has been England’s most impressive performer in Japan so far. It is more a reflection that despite dropping Ford from the first team nearly a year ago and only reinstating him in August, Jones doesn’t really know how playing at centre is affecting Farrell and the ball distributed to those outside him. What he would’ve been desperate to see is how a Farrell-Piers Francis-Henry Slade partnership would’ve run against the French, which the Australian was set to deploy in ‘Le Crunch’ before it was called off. Without knowing his options in game mode, how can Jones trust anything other than Ford-Farrell and Manu Tuilagi from the start of Saturday’s quarter-final, rather than slotting Tuilagi between that Farrell-Slade pairing?

Owen Farrell is struggling with a sickness bug ahead of England's final World Cup pool match (AFP via Getty)

“We all get a role in a particular week, whatever that is,” Ford said on Monday. “From a backline point of view we have unbelievable options: Sladey, Piers, Manu, Jonathan Joseph in the midfield, who will be given a role each week. You get told pretty early in the week what your role is and you try and fulfil that as well as you can. Whoever Eddie picks we are confident can go out and do a job.”

It means that this week’s preparations in Beppu, a few minutes north of Oita where England face Australia, are even more important than meets the eye. This is not just any Test week for England, this is a quarter-final Test week that all but four members of the squad have not experienced before. There are two options in how to address this: embrace and build the atmosphere within the camp throughout the week, or strip out all the importance and play it as if it’s ‘just another game’ in order to focus on the small things that makes up a complete performance.

Evidently, England are going for the latter.

“Look, we understand it’s a quarter-final but our approach as players is the same as any other game, any other week,” Ford added. “We want to just focus on the next thing and not look too far into the future, because we feel if we get our preparation right – which is being in the moment, give each session as much as we can in terms of enthusiasm, energy getting our detail right – then we’ll be in a great spot for Saturday.

“Nothing changes in terms of that. It’s a one-off Test match against Australia to look forward to.”

Both Billy Vunipola and Jack Nowell are yet to return to full training as they continue to be managed back from ankle and hamstring injuries respectively, though England have not ruled them out of this weekend’s encounter. Hatley said: “They have been involved in different aspects of training, in the gym and a little bit of breakdown in the gym as well. Jack was out doing some running this morning, and we will make a decision over the next few days.”