Head coach’s gameplan exploded in his face again against Australia. South Africa are next … do the players trust it?

One of the all-time great Wallaby Test victories has left England up a gum tree of their own making. Clearly Australia deserve huge praise for Saturday’s spectacular ram raid, topped off by a record for points scored in this fixture at Twickenham. For the home side, however, a recurring failure to close out big games is now the subject of mounting scrutiny.

Scoring five tries and 37 points, for instance, should be enough to win any Test match. But only last March England scored 31 points in Lyon and still lost to France . Yet another disturbing pattern is emerging, this time around their defensive solidity. It makes for cracking entertainment for neutrals, less so for those England fans who still have any hair left to pull out.