You have to wonder what might happen to England the next time their opponents keep 15 men on the field. For the second match running they were outclassed, outfought and out-thought by opposition who had a player sent off. If there was a degree of mitigation against the Barbarians, this was a troubling first defeat by Australia in nine matches and the first under Eddie Jones, who now comes under intense scrutiny. Positives for England are limited to Henry Arundell’s mesmeric late cameo on his debut and the fact that Australia did not backheel any conversions.
The laws will command plenty of column inches in the coming days considering there were four cards here and plenty of controversial decisions across the weekend’s matches but the most significant of this encounter is that attributed to Murphy. For everything that could go wrong for Australia did from the moment Quade Cooper was ruled out only minutes before kick-off with a calf injury.
