England v Australia: George Furbank on ‘taking learnings’ into Wallabies Test
Full-back George Furbank says England will “take their learnings” from a run of three narrow defeats by New Zealand as they prepare to face Australia in the Autumn Nations Series.
England surrendered leading positions on all three occasions as they lost their two-match summer series in New Zealand before opening their autumn campaign with a two-point home defeat by the All Blacks at Allianz Stadium last Saturday.
Steve Borthwick’s side were also beaten 33-31 by France in their final Six Nations game this year after a last-minute Thomas Ramos penalty.
Furbank, 28, says England are aiming to improve their discipline and make “better decisions” in the closing stages of matches.
“Test rugby against the top sides is probably always going to come down to the last quarter but each match is different,” Furbank told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There are learnings to take from last week and the big one for us was the amount of penalties we conceded in the final quarter.
“We lost five, having conceded only a couple leading up to that.
“It’s about being smart in that area to give you territory and close the game out. We have to be quicker at taking those learnings into games.
“Ultimately you just want to make good decisions and not allow the opposition in.
“If we kept that ball better we could have got down in their half, but we gave New Zealand momentum again.”
England have beaten Australia in 10 of their last 11 meetings and will be favourites when the two sides renew their rivalry at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
Furbank says the hosts want to play with the England “DNA” against Joe Schmidt’s side, who have also lost their last three Tests.
“We probably didn’t move the ball as well as we could have [against New Zealand] and we squandered a few opportunities, even before the last quarter,” added Furbank.
“We need to get that right but it’s about putting our DNA on the pitch, in the way we want to attack and defend.
“There might be opportunities to play through Australia or to go wide but it’s about being loaded on the pitch to be able to pull both triggers.”
