Eddie Jones has been throwing some verbal barbs but the England coach hasn’t pulled any surprises at the selection table, with two changes for Saturday’s Twickenham clash.
Monster backrower Nathan Hughes has revcovered from injury to start at number eight, in place of Billy Vunipola (knee).
Winger Marland Yarde comes into the starting team to replace Elliot Daly, with the incumbent handed a three-week suspension for a ‘reckless’ tackle against Argentina.
Ben Te'o has been named on the bench, in line to come up against former housemate Israel Folau for the first time in his rugby career.
Jones has opted for experience on the bench and said the match would ultimately be decided by those coming off the pine.
“Most big Test matches come down to the last 20 minutes and if you look back historically at big Test matches between England and Australia at Twickenham the last 20 minutes has always been a time where either team can win the game and the team that is the most composed, makes good decisions and physically pushes themselves is the team that is going to win the game.
Jones said they would need to look out for deception in Australia’s attack, prepared for a vastly different side to the one they met in June.
“Australia have improved significantly since we last played them. The enduring feature of Australian rugby is their cleverness. They look like they are doing one thing and they do the other. They have got some quite clever two-phase variation plays and we are going to need to be on our guard.
"They played very deep and a long way from the gain line against us in June, now they are really flattening up. They’ve really got their attack together and it’s clear Stephen Larkham is doing a good job with them.
“We want to make the game into a physical contest but we also need to be flexible and adaptable like we were against Argentina and if do that we’ll put ourselves in a good position to win the game."
TEAM
England 23 to face the Wallabies.
1. Mako Vunipola ( 38 caps)
2. Dylan Hartley (78 caps)
3. Dan Cole ( 68 caps)
4. Courtney Lawes (52 caps)
5. George Kruis (19 caps)
6. Chris Robshaw (54 caps)
7. Tom Wood ( 44 caps)
8. Nathan Hughes (2 caps)
9. Ben Young (64 caps)
10. George Ford (29 caps)
11. Jonny May( 21 caps)
12. Owen Farrell (46 caps)
13. Jonathan Joseph (28 caps)
14. Marland Yarde (10 caps)
15. Mike Brown (54 caps)
Reserves
16. Jamie George ( 11 caps)
17. Joe Marler (45 caps)
18. Kyle Sinckler (3 caps)
19. Charlie Ewels (2 caps)
20. Teimana Harrison (4 caps)
21. Danny Care ( 65 caps)
22. Ben Te’o (2 caps)
23. Henry Slade (4 caps)
Australia takes on England at Twickenham on Sunday, kicking off at 1:30am AEDT, LIVE on SBS and beIN Sport (Foxtel Channel 515).
