Rugby World Cup 2019: England learn from brutal Australia lesson to keep tricks up their sleeve

Ben Youngs remembers all too well what Australia did to England four years ago, and ahead as their Rugby World Cup quarter-final was confirmed for next weekend, he has plenty of informed knowledge for his younger teammates

Ben Youngs believes England have learned a few tricks from Australia ahead of their Rugby World Cup quarter-final showdown, with the experienced scrum-half insisting they have something special up their sleeve for the Wallabies.

Four years ago Youngs was part of the side that was dumped out of the World Cup by a ruthless Australian side that was inspired by fly-half Bernard Foley to a convincing 33-13 victory at Twickenham, condemning the tournament hosts to their worst ever tournament finish.

The Leicester half-back is also one of only four members in this current squad who also experienced the quarter-final exit in 2011 when a rebellious French side sent Martin Johnson’s team home from New Zealand, with Dan Cole, Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes the other survivors currently in their third World Cup campaign.

Those scars have been strongly discussed since England’s arrival in Japan, and with their quarter-final opponents now confirmed following Wales’s victory over Uruguay on Sunday, talk of the previous battles between these two great rugby rivals will only intensify – not just of Australia’s 2015 victory but of England’s six consecutive wins since.

“Australia are very clever in how they attack,” said Youngs. “They are smart, you think they are going to do one thing and they do something different. I have always found them challenging in that aspect.

“I like the way they play with their attacking mindset - and off the back of that you always get chances when they do play. They always have a few things up their sleeve that you don't expect so it is importune that we prep for that.”

There is one particular moment that sticks in the 30-year-old’s mind. Foley had already set up one try and scored the second to put Australia in front of England when he delivered the crushing final blow. Making a late dash from the shortside, he received the ball on the run from Will Genia and provided it up for Kurtley Beale on his inside shoulder to dart through, with the full-back then returning the favour for Foley to score his second. Through the entire move, not a single English hand gets to a Wallaby.

“That was one where they came up with a play we had never seen before; Foley comes around and plays back inside. You think they are going to do one thing and they do something completely different. That is why I think we have to be so on it against Australia.

“To be honest, we haven’t shown a huge amount in any of our games yet. Against USA and Tonga we kept it pretty low key, against Argentina we had a bit more in the playbook but didn’t need to show our hand. We will make sure we are right and ready to go and have things we haven’t had to use yet.”

England are already the bookmakers’ favourites for the clash in Oita next weekend for reasons that Youngs’ own record explains. In 10 starts against the Wallabies, he has only been on the losing side one, only it was the most important one between the two sides.

Part of the preparation for England has been finding the right level of confidence in themselves during this extended build-up, with the cancelled pool game against France on Saturday meaning Eddie Jones’s side have a 14-day preparation for their knockout encounter.

Bernard Foley's second try in Australia's 2015 victory lives in the memory of Ben Youngs (Getty)

Having not reached the business end of the tournament four years ago, there are few brains to draw upon in the squad to provide that experience of what cut-throat rugby really means, but Youngs is one and he believes that part of the problem in 2011 – and the solution now – is to not over-believe in your own abilities.

“I was thinking the other day about when we played France in the 2011 quarter finals,” said Youngs, who experienced the defeat against a French team written off after a civil war with their own coaches. “At that stage they were deemed to be in turmoil - my experience is that you can't read into what happens in the past or even day-to-day.

“Looking back – don't believe your own hype as a side. Just take every day as it comes. Don’t think about what happens before when you play each other. It is just about there and then.

“I remember that France game, we got off to a dreadful start and France raced ahead with two early tries, so you need to have that ability to get hold of the game early and to control it.

Ben Youngs learned valuable lessons from England's 2011 and 2015 World Cup exits (Getty)

“It is just about that 80 minutes - we will make sure we are aware of it. You have the belief and know that certain areas of the game are strong against them. You think about how they might potentially play, but as a whole, it gives you belief but we won't read too much into it.”

When the squads were announced, Australia head coach Michael Cheika named the most-experienced 31-man team in terms of caps out of all 20 nations at the World Cup. In contrast, England ranked in mid-table, but Youngs believes the squad now has an invaluable core of big-game experience running through it to make up for the dearth of World Cup knockout experience.

“I think we’ve got enough guys that have played internationally and club rugby,” he added.. “You look at the Sarries boys, the number of them dotted within the team, they’ve played some huge fixtures in Europe and stuff and they’re used to big games.

“We’ve done a lot of work off the field, we’ve done a lot to make sure that we don’t do that and I think the guys in the positions that they are will allow the team to feel relaxed and go out there to play how we play and not feel that tight about it or let the occasion get to us.”