Traditionally we have had success playing a tight game plan against the Aussies to begin with. Our pack isn't quite as dominant as previous successes but we will certainly have an edge. Gain line success is particularly important to negate their backrow. Intensity will be everything!
Perfectly summarised really, I'm hoping Launchbury can add a little bit of grunt to the scrum and provide disturbance to the Australian rucks, he's the best we have in the squad in regards to rucking, clearing out etc. If we do break the gainline as well, it's important to clear out fast and hard, and present the ball to Ben Youngs for the outside backs to flourish.
Looking back at the November series win, the scrum was fantastic yes, but the man of the match was Ben Youngs, who made many a linebreak, and Chris Robshaw not far behind in the way he dominated Michael Hooper. He's no slouch at turning ball over is Chris, and he has gotten better over the years. Is he a David pocock, no. However he is not a piece of deadwood in the rucks, far from it!
In fact England's weakness in the ruck when i look at the rucking figures of the back row is from a lack of participation in Tom Wood and Billy Vunipola/Morgan. But Launchbury can assist big time, and Tom Youngs & Dan Cole do regularly hit rucks (Despite the latters propensity for Penalties, he can also turn a lot of ball over)
In fact, last week, England had the quicker ball from rucks than Wales, as an openside flanker, isn't that just what you want? Especially against Sam Warburton, who is a tough jackal over the ball. I'll be very interested to see what happens come Saturday Night, despite the general consensus that England are not up to standard and Lancaster is a moron. He's not, he knows he'll be judged on this and although I think Burgess would be a great player in the "20" shirt on the bench (and covering 12 if they really wanted) and freeing 23 to be covered by Nowell/Slade, Lancaster prefers otherwise, and we'll see just how this pans out. Tbh that's the only real issue I can see with his selection, though injuries are not as likely to occur in this match as in the Fiji & Wales matches, which were highly physical confrontations
