England v Australia First Test preview: England desperate to find form

England’s three-match series against Australia gets underway in Perth on Saturday with both sides looking to recover from some poor recent results.

We preview this matchup below.

A look at the squads

Eddie Jones has selected a 36-man squad consisting of some valuable experience and exciting young players. This series sees returns to the squad for veteran Number 8 Billy Vunipola and the vastly experienced scrum-half Danny Care who is selected off the back of a nomination for Premiership Player of the Season.

After ruling himself out on personal grounds Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs will not feature in the series. Other notable omissions include versatile Saracens back Elliot Daly, who has fallen out of favour of late, as well as veteran Harlequins prop forward Joe Marler.

Several Leicester Tigers players find themselves in the squad after lifting the Premiership Title earlier this month. This includes full-back sensation Freddie Steward who, as well as winning the Premiership, picked up the Rugby Player’s Association Young Player and England Men’s Player of the Year Award.

Whilst England’s captain for the tour is still yet to be revealed it is thought that either Owen Farrell will continue his tenure as captain with the other likely option being 90-time England international Courtney Lawes taking the armband.

Long-time captain Michael Hooper heads the 35-man Australia squad for this series. Notable omissions from the squad include the experienced playmaker Kurtley Beale who misses out through injury after returning to Australia following his spell in France.

Australia have named six uncapped players in the squad including former rugby league player Suliasi Vunivalu. The 6-foot 4-inch winger scored 86 tries in 111 games for the Melbourne Storm and 12 tries in eight matches for his country of birth, Fiji, before making the switch to Rugby Union and the Wallabies.

Australian rules allow for three overseas players to be selected. The three selected for this series all play in Japan as fly-half Quade Cooper, and Fijian born backs Marika Koroibete and Samu Kerevi are also part of the squad.

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Head-to-Head

Eddie Jones took charge of the England side after the 2015 Rugby World Cup and since then England have come out on top in all eight encounters with Australia including a 3-0 whitewash on their last series visit to Australia in 2016. The most recent encounter between these sides saw England run out 31-15 winners at Twickenham in November 2021.

Despite Eddie Jones’ England being unbeaten against the Aussies they come into the first test as 8/5 underdogs as a result of their recent poor from. Australia on the other hand are 8/15 favourites to win the first test and gain revenge for their defeat at Twickenham in November.

However, despite Australia being strong favourites a close first test looks likely, with a handicap of only 4 points. The Wallabies are 10/11 to win the match with a -4 point handicap whilst England are the same odds to win the match with a +4 point handicap.

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