2015 Rugby World Cup: Brilliant Australia crush England as hosts bow out of World Cup

England players look disappointed after their loss to Australia on Saturday

Australia’s fly-half Bernard Foley produced a scintillating display at Twickenham as he scored two fantastic tries and kicked 18 points as Australia defeated England 33-13 in their Pool A clash and in the process, put paid to England’s hopes of making the knockout stages of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

England came into this match in a do-or-die situation after having lost to Wales in their previous match with defeat certain to condemn them to an early exit from their home world cup. They found Foley and Australia a mountain too high to scale as Foley, dubbed ‘The Iceman’ for his ability to keep calm, put in a masterclass to lead the way for Australia. Until Matt Giteau’s late try, all of Australia’s points had come from Foley.

Australia from the outset had the pressure firmly applied on England, knowing fully well how important the match was to England’s hopes. David Pocock and Michael Hooper in the flankers’ positions were absolutely devastating for the Wallabies as they ensured that the English never really got a toehold in the game. With Pocock and Hooper dominating the rucks, England found it difficult to impose their pack advantage.

The opening was shared as Foley and Owen Farrell traded penalty kicks, but soon Foley would put the Aussies ahead with a superb individual try. With the England defence stretched, Foley threw a clever dummy to go past scrum-half Ben Youngs and also beating Mike Brown to score. The subsequent conversion made it 10-3 to the Aussies.

Five minutes before the break, the Wallabies would further extend that advantage with a brilliantly worked play. Showcasing some exemplary wing play, Foley made a wonderful run on the outside line about 30 minutes out, passed the ball to Kurtley Beale and received it back on the outside to dart in and score under the posts. Two more points from the conversion meant a 17-3 lead for Australia going into the break.

England mustered a brief fight back in the second half with Anthony Watson scoring a try and reducing the deficit to seven points at 20-13 with about 10 minutes to go in the game. Keen to arrest the rapidly deteriorating situation, England applied significant pressure at the start of the second half and that pressure produced a try as Watson battled past defenders on the right flank to score on 55 minutes.

Farrell then added the conversion and another penalty to provide hope for the hosts.Australia responded though and England’s problems were compounded when Farrell was shown a yellow and sin binned for a dangerous tackle on Giteau and that consigned the hosts to their fate.

Foley just continued to hurt England as in another fantastic backs move the fly-half combined with Adam Ashley Cooper to free up Giteau for a try outside on the right flan to silence the Twickenham crowd.

Despite the hugely impressive win Australia’s coach, Michael Cheika, maintained that there was still much work to be done ahead of their meeting with Wales.

"There are a lot of areas we can improve on. The commitment was very good and we will improve on that going forward. We really wanted it; to win and to play well. We knew there would be a lot of pain in England's backyard. It was outrageously loud and we wanted to get stuck in from the start”, said Cheika.