Itoje 'over the moon' after England dominate Australia

LONDON: England captain Maro Itoje said he was "over the moon" after his side opened their November Nations Championship campaign with a record 45-22 win over Australia at Twickenham on Sunday.

Itoje's men ran in seven tries, Henry Pollock scoring two after coming off the bench at half-time to replace injured wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

Their final tally of 45 points was the most England had managed in a Test against Australia, surpassing the 44 they managed in a 44-40 win in Sydney 2016.

Victory eased the pressure on England coach Steve Borthwick, in the spotlight after his side had lost five of their eight previous Tests in 2026.

Senior players such as returning skipper Itoje, rested from the July leg of the inaugural Nations Championship, denied newspaper reports this week of a "toxic environment" caused by Borthwick's management style.

Itoje had also called on England to lay down a marker against the Wallabies ahead of a projected quarter-final against the hosts at next year's Rugby World Cup in Australia.

"I'm over the moon," Itoje said after a match where Jamie George, Ollie Chessum, Joe Heyes and Jack van Poortvliet also crossed Australia's try-line before replacement Ben Spencer went in for a maiden Test try after Pollock's double.

"This week has been great, I think we're starting to show what we can do. We have a talented team and we're starting to put it together," Itoje said.

But the Saracens second row added: "We're in a good place, we need to build."

Australia only managed one try in the opening period, an intercept score from Max Jorgensen – whose 83rd minute effort at Twickenham two years ago secured a memorable win for the Wallabies.

They added two more tries after half-time on Sunday, through Filipo Daugunu and Jeremy Williams, but by then the game was beyond them.

This was the Wallabies' third defeat in a row after thy shipped a combined 93 points in a pair of heavy defeats by New Zealand last month, with Australia captain Harry Wilson saying: "I guess we struggled to get our game going.

"England put us under the pump. We didn't get much ball in the first half.

"England were the better team today. They fronted up physically. They put us under the pump. "Our defence, we weren't physical enough, we didn't slow their ball down."

As for Australia's second-half tries, the No 8 added: "It's too little too late. We know that when we hold the ball for long phases and when we play our style of footy how much we can cut teams up, but we can't wait til the last 15, 20 minutes to do it, we need to be doing it from minute one." - AFP