huhhello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live coverage of the English team’s announcement this morning for the second Test against Australia in Brisbane, with Eddie Jones revealing his squad at 07:15 BST.
Flanker Sam Underhill, who is poised to replace Tom Curry in England’s back row, believes the battle for breakdown will be crucial to leveling up the series.
Wallabies openside Michael Hooper was the dominant figure in the hosts’ 30-28 win in the first Test, which ruled the game on the ground, including one game-changing turnover.
Underhill insists dominating the disturbance will be the key to ending England’s four-game loss.
“We controlled parts of the game pretty well for a decent part of the game, but in the end penalties and discipline cost us,” said Underhill. “Whether the failure was more competitive than we thought it would be or not, we didn’t adjust to the interpretation of the failure.
“You can’t have an attack without a properly working attack analysis and vice versa – you can’t defend indefinitely, so the analysis is a pretty good area to target if you want to suppress an attack.
“It’s always a huge battle area, especially in Test rugby against the sides of the southern hemisphere and especially Australia who are going for it pretty hard. When you get the breakdown right, everything else becomes easier.
“Hooper is clearly a major danger of bad luck. It’s not a matter of man-marking him, but as a team you are well aware that if he is near the breakdown he will most likely battle. shift early because he’s good on the ball.”
Curry was banned from the tour after suffering a concussion in the first Test, his third head knock in the past six months. Underhill was sidelined for more than two months after suffering back-to-back concussions on either side of Christmas. His empathy for fellow “Kamikaze Kid” is coupled with concern about the growing magnitude of the clashes.
“On a test level, Tom is a machine and I feel terrible for him that his tour is over early,” said Underhill. “Rugby is a more physical game than it’s ever been. There are great athletes who move really well and at Test level you don’t have much time to react. The collisions are faster.”