Visiting captain Courtney Lawes says England’s win in the Test series decider against the Wallabies was fuelled by the home side “talking smack” in the build-up to the finale.
A 21-17 victory in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground ensured a 2-1 series win for the English.
After the Wallabies ended their losing streak against England in Perth, the visitors took two wins on the trot in Brisbane and Sydney to seal the Ella-Mobbs Cup.
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Although this year’s series didn’t have the same level of tit-for-tat between coaches as it did between England’s Eddie Jones and former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, there was still enough for Lawes to get up and about.
“We dug in there, fair play to Australia. The amount of casualties they’ve had alone… they did a great job,” Lawes said.
“They really put us to the test tonight. Fair play, congratulations to them, but we stuck together, we stuck at it, and managed to come away with the win.
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“We fought for each other. We had a great four weeks here. We have really enjoyed ourselves.
“I mean, they give us a good bit of fuel in the press, to be fair. They were talking smack about us. That motivated us a bit but the boys stuck together, stuck to our guns.
“We didn’t fire that many shots tonight unfortunately but we found a way to win, that’s the big improvement.”
Ellis Genge echoed Lawes’ sentiment, thriving on the fighting talk.
“Typically the English are better as underdogs,” said Genge.
“It was hard for us to get up again but they came out in the press and said a bit of smack and it got us up for the last one. Unreal.”
It’s the second straight series that England has won touring Australia after a 3-0 whitewash in 2016.
Wallabies captain Michael Hooper was humble in defeat, conceding his side didn’t do enough to edge out England.
“To come back from 1-0 down, close out the series, you’ve got to take your hat off to them,” said Hooper.
“I don’t think we were clinical. We created good opportunities tonight, just not good enough to execute them and finish them.
“Obviously we saw, in our review, some opportunity there to move the ball around and affect them.
“There were some areas that hurt us, big moments, right before half time them getting that try obviously a bit of a scrappy ball there where Marcus [Smith] goes the half of the field.
“Some pleasing elements, but this really hurts.”
The Wallabies faced an uphill battle throughout the series, entering every match with at least one high-profile omission due to injury.
Hooper hailed the efforts of his team despite the difficult situation.
“I’m forever proud of our group,” he said.
“We grinded, we played some good footy, we didn’t execute how we wanted, but there’s so much grit in this group, there’s been a lot of adversity.
“I mean, no excuses, we put ourselves in a chance to win it tonight. A shame we couldn’t do it here.
“It was a magnificent evening to play rugby in front of a full house. We really enjoyed the crowd’s involvement in the game, sorry we couldn’t give them a win.”
The Wallabies turn their focus to the Rugby Championship where they’ll face New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina each twice across August and September.
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