England reign short-lived

Sun Herald Greg Growden Sunday, June 27, 2004
"A Clyde Rathbone fairytale and the exciting reality of Australia scoring six tries enabled the Wallabies to end a five-match losing streak to England and gain some relief from the World Cup final loss last year with a 36-point thrashing last night.

And Wallaby coach Eddie Jones finally achieved a victory over his long-time foe Clive Woodward.

It could not have come in more enjoyable fashion as his team played with such attacking extravagance, and an outright pursuit of tries, exciting the capacity Suncorp Stadium crowd with endless memorable moments.

While fullback Joe Roff was a standout and deserved the man-of-the-match award with a swashbuckling performance, the big star of Australia's first victory over England since 1999 was Rathbone, who was told only a few minutes before kick-off that he was in the starting line-up.

Winger Wendell Sailor damaged his hamstring during the warm-up and Rathbone was moved into the team. Queensland No.8 John Roe went onto the bench, meaning that Australia had only two back reserves - halfback Matt Henjak and utility Chris Latham."

To their credit England played expansive rugby [ran with the ball] but went sideways up against a Wallabies defense which had clearly 'run dead' in the two games against Scotland so as to not over exert or give too much away as to tactics and capabilities. With 35% of the ball they put 50 points on the reigning World Champions. As George Gregan observed, "the World Cup is over, we can't win that..." but it'll do for now!!