- England suffered defeat to New Zealand in first of their autumn internationals
- Hosts were leading at Twickenham before All Blacks prevailed in dramatic finish
- They face Australia in their second international at Twickenham on Saturday
England skipper Jamie George has urged his players to go for the jugular against the Wallabies and get back to winning ways.
Steve Borthwick’s team were accused of taking their foot of the throat and ‘declaring’ in their final-quarter defeat by the All Blacks last week.
Having won 11 of their last 12 meetings, England are heavy favourites to beat Australia and George is desperate to avoid another late heartbreak.
‘My messaging to the team, Steve’s messaging the team, we’re going to want to go out and play with courage and be brave and take teams on and never sit back,’ said George. ‘The challenge is, can we continue to do that for 80 minutes?
‘There’s a fine line between being relentless and almost reckless. We’re very clear about how we want to go about things. I think the more time that we spend together, the better we’re going to get. Whoever we’re playing, we want to take them on.
Jamie George has urged his players to bounce back against Australia, who they have defeated in 11 of their last 12 matches
England fell to a 22-24 defeat against New Zealand in their first autumn international
‘We come up with brilliant plans, our coaching team and the senior players and that [Smith kick] was a set play that we identified. It gets a crowd on our feet a little bit. The more that we can do that, the more that we can then back that up with pressure off the back of clear execution, I think we can overcome a good team.
‘If you worry about that expectation too much [you can] start sitting back and being fearful of failure rather than going out there and taking teams on. We will take Australia on on Saturday, that has been the message all week.’
