FILE PHOTO: Rugby Union - Six Nations Championship - England Training - Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain - February 23, 2024 England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth during training Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) - With only a positional shuffle in an otherwise unchanged team facing Australia on Saturday, England's midfield, and the exciting young centre they will be up against, were top of the agenda for assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth on Thursday.
Starved of ball, England's Ollie Lawrence was unable to make his usual punching holes in the defeat by New Zealand and has been shifted to outside centre, swapping with Henry Slade, who is expected to act as a second playmaker alongside flyhalf Marcus Smith.
Wigglesworth described it as a "slight tweak" and said the two centres were already quite interchangeable.
"We didn’t have the ball much at the weekend," Wigglesworth said of the All Black defeat where England kicked much of their possession.
"We know he’s (Lawrence) a great strike runner for us but it wasn’t clean. We’re trying to get him on the ball in as much space as possible in transition. We missed a few chances to do that and hopefully we’ll get more opportunities and we won’t miss them.
"I’m sure Ollie will get his hands on the ball more this weekend, and if he doesn’t it won’t be through a lack of trying."
Lining up for Australia at outside centre will be 21-year-old rugby league convert Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who will be playing his first senior union match.
"It will be really interesting won’t it?," Wigglesworth said. "I don’t think Joe Schmidt, the world-class coach that he is, puts him in unless he’s ready.
"He’s played at school and has been ready for this move for a while. He’s obviously an incredible athlete and talent, which is why he’s come over with the reputation and the price tag he's got.
"We’ll look at him in his rugby league. Kev (Sinfield) will give us a good insight there and we’ll make sure we do our due diligence in the next couple of days."
POOR DISCIPLINE
Much of England's review of the All Blacks defeat focused on their deteriorating discipline, where they went from giving away only two penalties in the first hour to being pinged repeatedly to help turn an eight-point lead into a two-point defeat.
It was the fourth time in five games they had let a late lead slip and Wigglesworth said the explanation was simple.
"Discipline. We’ve given opponents too many chances," he said. "You play top teams and give them too many ins, they’re going to score points. It also stops you from getting field position and chances to attack.
"We obviously had the issues we did late in the game and you’re trying to mitigate against them as much as you can and give yourself the chance to win it.
"We didn’t and that’s sport because we’re sat here having a very different conversation and two inches to the left (George Ford's late penalty that hit a post)... those are the highs and lows, that’s why we all turn up and we all love it."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)
