‘Fire some shots’: Wilson’s call for response after England defeat

Wallabies captain Harry Wilson is calling on his side to “fire some shots” as they look to rebound against Scotland next weekend.

The Australians were outmatched by England to start their end-of-year tour, going down 45-22 at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

This came amid a stifled attacking showing by Les Kiss’ side, which waited close to 35 minutes for their first entry inside England’s 22, ending in a lost lineout.

Max Jorgensen’s intercept gave them hope heading into the break down 19-10, only for England to race away with the contest.

It leaves the Aussies hurting heading to Scotland as they look to rebound at Murrayfield, with the skipper delivering a rally call to his men.

“We want a big response. It wasn't good enough tonight,” Wilson said post-match.

“I want us to go out there and fire some shots, be a lot more physical in defence and put Scotland under pressure.

“We need to do that and it's on us to do it.”

Coach Kiss’ frustration was on display after conceding three tries in a 14 minute period that ended their hopes of a comeback. Two of these came to fill-in winger Henry Pollock, who celebrated in trademark fashion.

“We just didn't get going, particularly in the first half. I give a lot of credit to England for the way they imposed their plan on us. They didn't give us a chance to impose what we would like to have done with the ball for sure,” the coach reflected.

“…Our training all week was really about making sure we found those opportunities that we believed were in the defence line of England. We just didn't really fire a shot to get to those spaces. 

“I don't think that we were reticent to try our hand, I don't think that was the case. I think the pressure was there and we just couldn't get a bit of traction in the game to get momentum and flow that allowed us to feel comfortable going into that space.”

The coach forecast changes for Monday’s (AEDT) match against the Scots, with several stars likely available.

This includes Carter Gordon (leg) and Tom Hooper (shoulder), while Rob Valetini, Ben Donaldson and Filipo Daugunu were effective off the bench.

“We'll look at every aspect of our selection process and go through that for sure. The nature of competition for places is exactly what you need, so we need to create that competition as well through those mechanisms, so we may see some things there,” Kiss added.

“We'll make sure we do what we usually do: look through it pragmatically, make sure we're seeing things the same way as a coaching group and a leadership group, and move the dial there as we need to.

“We want competition and it hasn't been good enough, so we've got to look at that closely for sure.”