A little late to the party as have been away (and watched the match on a small screen from far away with no sound) but if anyone's interested, I've rewatched youtube highlights with particular focus on England's defence and thought I'd post my thoughts.
Click here for the highlights I used
FWIW, it is focussed on England so haven't said much about Australia's excellent attack – don't mean to take anything away, just that I'm specifically looking at English defence.
1st Australian try (0:30)
As discussed at length, Watson was at fault – he bit in on Kerevi rather than trusting Burrell. Worth noting that Watson was already out of position as the ball came out the ruck as he and Burrell were swapping positions in the line (pretty lazily on his part, I might add) which I imagine contributed hugely to his mistake. The impression I get rewatching is that he wasn't expecting them to go blind and switched off – very poor from him, but also highlights excellent awareness by Aus, not to mention great hands from Kerevi. Also worth noting in fairness to Watson that he made a very good tackle on Hooper the phase before, which probably "saved" a try.
2nd Australian try (1:39)
Burrell and JJ slow compared to Farrell, leaving a disjointed line as Foley releases the pass (pause at 1:43). Not sure whether Farrell should've slowed and drifted on to Kerevi, or whether LB/JJ should've been quicker up alongside him, allowing Folau less space. I'm guessing Gustard would say the latter, but either would've been an improvement, can probably put this down to new defensive systems and perhaps slightly forgive it as part of a learning curve. Watson left exposed, I would put this one down to the midfield not to him. Good cover from Brown
Quick ruck ball (only Haskell trying to slow it down) leaves England on the back foot, disorganised and with a cluster of slow forwards up against Foley/Folau/Kuridrani in midfield.
Farrell definitely makes a wrong read, but on rewatching it's clear that he was left in a hell of a position by the speed of ball and the far from ideal collection of defenders inside him. I can see why he took the risk to shoot up at Folau, many times the ten would take the wrong option and he'd end up making a crucial hit behind the gainline.
Yarde was also left in a tricky spot through no fault of his own but gave up far too many yards.
Next ruck England actually allowed and disrupted, which makes it particularly irritating that when the ball came out to Foley (excellent through-the-legs pass by the way!) Aus had men over. Both Vunipolas and Robshaw are seen moving too late from the blindside (2:14), Mako in particular is a complete waste of a defender for this phase as he ambles across in a kind of scrum-half sweeping line.
Despite this England actually do very well defending wide, and then narrow on the next couple of phases, to stop momentum. Special mentions to Billy V for a big hit on Hooper and Robshaw for a good read cutting off the wide option for Foley.
Unfortunately a straight up missed tackle from Haskell (again probably caused by his being late back into the line, not anticipating the inside ball) undoes this good work. Good cover from Billy again.
Final phase for Folau's try: Farrell again up too quick – and faaaaar too early, early enough in fact to change his mind and leave himself in no man's land. Easy finish.
Australian disallowed try (4:43)
At the time I thought Aus were hard done by here. On rewatch I'm less convinced, but still on balance think them unlucky – not because I don't consider this blocking, but because based on consistent interpretation in line with the standard interpretation this would be fine. This rule needs sorting out by WR.
Poor linespeed, so plenty of time to play for Aus. Slow forwards isolated in the backline a) probably contributed to slow linespeed and b) too slow to cover behind after Foley's break. Brown should be pretty embarrassed at how easily he got done by Foley as well.
1st English try
Not defence per se, but worth noting that the strong kick chase and harrying from Farrell, Joseph and others allowed us to capitalise on Aus mistakes. Still an absolute gift of a try though.
3rd Australian try (9:48)
Again a slightly disjointed line allows Australia to pass deep and get round the outside. Ford is either up to fast or Farrell too slow, leaving a gap – my feeling is Ford is at fault, Farrell has seen the space and numbers outside and is hanging back hoping to drift. Ford gets stepped and allows the offload to too large a gap between him and Farrell (see above), allowing Kerevi to get in behind.
Aus blindside phase appears calculated to take out both Ford and Farrell, meaning the midfield defence next phase will be compromised – lo and behold, they go wide (2 phases later actually) and score against forwards in the midfield.
If you freeze at 10:21 as Foley receives the ball there is actually a pretty good flat line of four, up fast, if possibly a little too narrow. Billy makes a very bad read rushing up and exposing Watson, but you can forgive him - one on one with Folau he's never the favourite whatever decision he makes. The real issue is that mismatch happening – which probably comes down to excellent Aussie phase play, as well general organisation and communication in defence (as opposed to the nitty-gritty detail this post has been about). From there it's easy, although kudos to Robshaw for a sterling effort at covering across.
4th Australian try (11:25)
Care appears to miss the tackle on Haylett-Petty off the scrum, but for me Haskell's lack of speed for an international openside is seriously exposed here – full credit to him for making the scrambling tackle, but the gap should not have been there. Especially considering he was detached from the scrum well before the ball was passed out – clear penalty IMO.
Joseph definitely at fault for letting Kuridrani get on his inside there, no question – but to be fair he'd have been close to impossible to stop anyway from there. Credit to AUs for good quick ball, didn't allow the defence time to reorganise.
Final thoughts
I'm aware that this is very focussed on the negatives – since it was the try highlights, by definition I didn't watch the parts where England defended well. It's not all doom and gloom, but seems to be generally agreed that England's defence needs improving
I'm left with a bit of a feeling of England still working on the defensive system and not always all being on the same page, highlighted especially by Farrell's role in a lot of the above. Often he was up faster than those around him – he is very familiar with Gustard's system from Sarries and knows what is wanted, the others are still learning the timing and left OF a little exposed by not being up with him. Toss a coin over whether you blame over who is to "blame" in those situations, but assuming we want the famous "Wolfpack" defence then it isn't Farrell who needs to make changes. I do think this system is not naturally suited to JJ, which has potential problems as 13 is key to it – he will have to learn, but I do have faith he will.
To reiterate what I said under Aus try 3, a lot of the problems came from mismatches, so not individual mistakes per se but which would come down to more structural defensive problems and communication. I'm sure Gustard will be working hard on this.
I'm sure I remember reading about Watson being at fault for two tries? The first one definitely, I can't see where the second is, unless people are blaming him for the third which would be incredibly unfair.
I remember watching a world cup game at Twickenham and you could hear a pin drop, it was great.
