The November rugby internationals get under way on Saturday and the earliest of the kick offs sees England clash with Australia at Twickenham
England v Australia, Saturday 1st November, Twickenham, KO 17:10 (South African time)
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: James Doleman (NZR), Craig Evans (WRU)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)
Weather Forecast – Twickenham
England:
England were in Argentina in July and they won both test matches (35-12 and 22-17) before they thrashed USA (40-5).
They had a solid 6 Nations early in the year, winning 4 and losing 1 of their matches to finish in second spot, just 1 point behind title winners France. They lost their opening match of that tournament in Ireland (27-22) before narrow wins at home to France (26-25) and Scotland (16-15). They also put Italy away (47-24) in another home fixture before a thumping (68-14) victory in Wales.
In the November international series of 2024 England lost at home to New Zealand (24-22), Australia (42-37) and South Arica (29-20) before beating Japan (59-14).
After this England will host Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina
Australia:
The Wallabies end of year tour began in Tokyo last week and they had to dig deep to see off Japan 19-15.
In the Rugby Championship Australia eventually finished third with a record of 2 wins and 4 defeats. They started with a double header against the Boks in South Africa and won the first clash 38-22 before losing the second 30-22. Two home fixtures against Argentina went down to the wire with the Wallabies edging the first match 28-24 before losing the second 28-26. They were still in with some sort of shout in the title race heading into the final rounds but they suffered back to back defeats to the All Blacks, in Auckland (33-24) and in Perth (28-14).
In July the Wallabies lost a 3 match home series against the B&I Lions 2-1.
In last years November series Australia started with a thrilling (42-37) win over England at Twickenham and followed up with a (52-20) win in Wales. After that they went down in Scotland (27-13) and were edged out in Ireland (22-19).
After this the Wallabies will take on Italy, Ireland and France.
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2024 INT Twickenham England 37-42 Australia
Jul 2022 INT Sydney Australia 17–21 England
Jul 2022 INT Brisbane Australia 17–25 England
Jul 2022 INT Perth Australia 30–28 England
Nov 2021 INT Twickenham England 32-15 Australia
Team News
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Tommy Freeman, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Guy Pepper, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje (captain), 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George, 1 Fin Baxter
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Tom Curry, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Fin Smith
Australia: 15 Andrew Kellaway, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Tane Edmed, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 Angus Bell.
Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Hamish Stewart, 23 Filipo Daugunu
The Betting
Average early show, subject to change
England -8.5 points at 9/10
Australia +8.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this weeks internationals will be posted on this blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.