England lock George Kruis says England need to be brutal if they want too clinch the series against the Wallabies this weekend.
Kruis said his side was expecting Australia to hit pack with a vengeance after the opening Test and they would need to be prepared for anything.
“It’s an odd scenario,” he said.
“You play a side one week and most times you don’t then play them for five, six, seven, eight weeks.
“They’ll be wanting to come back and prove a point to us but we’ve tried to be this brutal English pack we talked about six months ago and we’re going about our own way trying to make it as brutal and as consistent as possible.”
Kruis said backrower James Haskell led the way with his physicality on Saturday night, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary for an international match.
“I think Haskell set the tone in the first five minutes putting in good shots and I think it was two sides really going at each other,” he said.
“That’s what you expect at Test level, ,that’s what the fans come to watch and it didn’t disappoint.”
Certainly, the Wallabies weren’t overly intimidated by England’s tactics, with Australia blindside Scott Fardy disputing the brutality of the match on Monday morning, saying it was the slowdown of the match that proved pivotal for their opponents.
“It wasn’t the most brutal Test I’ve played,” he said.
“All tests are physical and all tough but there wasn’t as much running and the ball wasn’t in hand as much as we would’ve liked it to be.”
“They had a few new players in there so there were definitely more confrontational, more so, probably, than the World Cup.
As well as asserting a physical dominance, Kruis said a quick fire start from Australia, who outscored England four tries to three, emphasised the need to stay entirely focused for the full match.
“At international or test level there’s no switching off. You get punished for your mistakes a lot more than any other situation,” he said.
“We want to be a physical ruthless aside and we train like that and hopefully we play like that.”
Kruis said England had made strides in fitness since Eddie Jones took over.
“When a new coach comes in and he focuses on certain things as players you’ve got to listen to those focuses if you want to get picked,” he said.
“If he wants you to increase your fitness you’ve got to increase your fitness.
“We know as a side we’ve got to maintain concentration as well as keeping our fitness and physical levels up.”
The availability of Wallabies lock Rob Simmons is yet to be confirmed, after a back injury ended his night in Brisbane.
Kruis said they would still be wary of the Australian lineout, no matter whether Simmons started.
“They’ve got some very good lineout options, four very good second rowers, plenty of callers within their pack so I don’t think they’ll have any issues in that department,” he said.
