George Ford: We need to raise our game against Australia

George Ford has warned the England team that they will need to up their game significantly to beat Australia in the final QBE autumn international at Twickenham next weekend.

Fly-half Ford and Red Rose captain Chris Robshaw were the stars of the show as the hosts overcame a sticky start in tough conditions to beat Samoa 28-9 on Saturday evening.

The Bath man admitted, though, that while the result will provide some momentum ahead of the clash with the Wallabies, England’s performance will need to improve, particularly if next weekend sees more rain.

“Some of the mistakes we made [against Samoa] will definitely be punished by the Australians next week, because that’s where they’re brilliant, off the unstructured ball,” said Ford.

“We’ve got to up it again 15, 20 per cent. I think we’re going to have to learn a little bit to play smarter when it’s wet weather as well.”

And despite being instrumental in his team’s turnaround against the Pacific Islanders after early struggles, Ford acknowledged that there was no guarantee that he would keep his place against Australia.

He said: “You always want to start for England, don’t you? But it’s up to the coaches, they’ll come up with a plan and a team that they think is best to beat Australia, and whether I’m involved in that or not, I’ll back it 100 per cent.”