The scoreline alone offers concrete evidence of how underwhelming England were against Australia in the first Ashes Test on Saturday, but if anyone needed further proof, a glimpse around the Wembley crowd was somewhat telling, too.<\/p>\n
As a one-sided contest ebbed towards a predictable conclusion, there were cheers among those sat near the press box. Not for an England try, but for a paper aeroplane crafted by a home supporter that had successfully made its way from the top of one tier on to the pitch. It was about the only thing that went right for those of an English persuasion.<\/p>\n
The beauty of a three-Test series is that no matter what happens in the first match there is an opportunity to bounce back. But, conversely, England are already in must-win territory after their 26-6 defeat and the odds feel worryingly stacked against them going into next weekend\u2019s second Test at Everton\u2019s new ground. There was no shortage of effort from England and the promise that they would be motivated going into a first Ashes series in 22 years could not be questioned. But there was a critical lack of quality at any stage of the contest, which means Shaun Wane, the head coach, is surely going to have to make changes to try to keep the series alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt like we were off the mark, so there\u2019s a lot to work on,\u201d the England prop Mike McMeeken said. \u201cWe were going toe-to-toe with them early on but they\u2019re pretty clinical. Any opportunity they get, they seem to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Welsby\u2019s longstanding position as England full-back feels under threat. Welsby has had a difficult season for St Helens but had credit in the bank with Wane, so much so that he was a guaranteed starter at Wembley. But England have brought the former Queensland star AJ Brimson \u2013 who was 18th man on Saturday \u2013 halfway around the world after he switched his allegiance from Australia. To omit him again next weekend would be a grave error after Welsby underwhelmed in the first Test.<\/p>\n
There will surely have to be tweaks elsewhere too, given the worrying lack of enforcement or aggression from England\u2019s middles, of the kind we have been used to in recent years from players such as Sam Burgess and James Graham. What Wane would give for either of those two in his side next weekend. Canberra\u2019s Morgan Smithies is the closest candidate to come in.<\/p>\n
What will also serve as a great disappointment for Wane and his men is that the biggest-ever crowd for an Ashes Test in the United Kingdom were given little to cheer. Wembley was incredibly flat, with England struggling to deliver on the big occasion. \u201cWe\u2019re disappointed with the result and the scoreline on a day like this,\u201d McMeeken said. \u201cSixty thousand here, a pretty big crowd, and we feel like we haven\u2019t lived up to the potential and the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angus Crichton goes over for Australia\u2019s third try as the tourists routed England in the second half. Photograph: Lee Parker\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
For London-born Kai Pearce-Paul, the feeling of frustration was even greater. \u201cIt was an amazing week and event to be a part of, but the reality is that we didn\u2019t play to how we practised,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t good enough; let\u2019s not pretend anything otherwise. But this isn\u2019t done. It\u2019s game one, and while we weren\u2019t up to the standard required we\u2019ll go again.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n England will have to go again, and they will have to up their levels significantly next week. Saturday was perceived to be the hosts\u2019 best shot of victory with the feeling that they could catch the Australians cold in the opening match. Ominously, the Kangaroos have had their loosener now and there is little doubt they will be even better at Everton. The harsh reality is that the tourists never really got out of second gear on Saturday.<\/p>\n Throw in the prospect of a referee from Australia\u2019s National Rugby League taking charge \u2013 meaning faster rucks, something the tourists are used to \u2013 and it all points to a tall order for England in the second Test. Wane has to respond, and he has to make some difficult decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scoreline alone offers concrete evidence of how underwhelming England were against Australia in the first Ashes Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-242279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}