Wallabies' woes mount after terrible Twickenham outing

When Max Jorgensen sprinted away to score the Wallabies' first try on the stroke of half time, supporters may have felt a faint stirring of half-remembered joy.

Just two years earlier, Jorgensen raced down that same touchline, albeit running in the other direction, to snatch a thrilling victory at the death.

That the try came at the end of a magnificent move of swift ball movement and rapid running imbibed a justified sense of hope in where the national team was heading.

The possibilities that victory seemed to promise were endless.

Two years ago, it felt like the Wallabies were building.

Back in the present and Jorgensen's solo score, via an intercept pass against the run of play, meant that the Wallabies only trailed England by 9 points at half time, sugar-coating a desperate first half in which that was the Wallabies' only line break.

And it would only get worse.

The Wallabies came away from Twickenham having lost a third-straight match by a big score, conceding a record total against an England team that has now won 12 of their past 14 matches against them.

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Incredibly, coming into the game, England were the team under pressure.

Steve Borthwick's team won just a single game in the Six Nations, and that was only against the basket case Welsh, to finish fifth on the ladder.

In fact, England, the richest and best-equipped nation in world rugby, had only won three of their eight matches in 2026.

A report in The Times on match week suggested a deepening rift between the head coach and his players that put further pressure on Borthwick, although senior players angrily denied those claims in the lead-up to the game.

The Wallabies had hoped they could use that distraction to put England to the sword, build on the sensational victory against South Africa in Perth and prove that the All Black thrashings were merely aberrations built on the kryptonite qualities Eden Park holds over the side.

Instead, it is the Wallabies who leave south west London in even deeper trouble than before, with time running out to effect reasonable change.

Despite the closeness of the half time score, in truth the Wallabies barely featured in the opening 40 minutes.

England, rampaging forward with impunity, had dominated.

In fact, it was only the hosts' errors that had kept the Wallabies in touch at all — Jorgensen's intercept score included.

England's speed at the breakdown had the Wallabies on the back foot.

Their bravery with the ball in hand contrasted dramatically with the Wallabies' insipid defence, forced too narrow by the pace of England's outside backs.

Les Kiss appeared to grow increasingly angry in the coaching box throughout the first half and well into the second.

But heading into the break within touching distance, despite the way they had played, could have given the Wallabies a boost.

Sadly, the Wallabies came out for the second half just as insipidly as they started the first.

Within 15 minutes of the restart, England were 38-10 up and the game was well and truly over, with all but one of the Wallabies' tries essentially a gift from England errors.

"I am disappointed, there is frustration," Kiss told the BBC after the match.

"A credit to England, they kept us in our third in the first half and made their way into our tryline area. They were very good and clinical.

"This wasn't a true reflection of us but that is what happened."

If Wallabies fans want to look for positives, they will have to spend a long time searching.

Ben Donaldson and Filipo Daugunu did OK off the bench: In the short time they were together on the field they had a combined total of four clean breaks, while the rest of the team had just three in total.

But those are thin straws to clutch at.

The worry for the Wallabies now is how to arrest this slide.

Maro Itoje said pre-game that this match would be crucial ahead of any potential meeting at the World Cup, which could occur at the quarterfinal stage if projections bare out.

"Each game is new but there's no doubt that against teams you're going to play down the line, you want them to know that you've got their number," Itoje said.

"We want to win this weekend for this weekend's sake, but we also want to win because we don't want to give the opposition an inch.

"We want to show ourselves and show England fans that we've turned a corner.

"For that reason, this game is huge."

One match does not change an entire mindset, but if Itoje believes England may use it to turn a corner, what direction are the Wallabies now heading in?

"We need to be better," Kiss said simply.

"Losses like that make you sit back and make you take an internal look into a few things.

"It is important to not look too far and too wide, we need to narrow down a few things that we can work on together.

"It is a disappointment tonight but we have seven days to turn that around."

The problem is that seven days may not be anywhere near enough.