England v Australia: George Furbank on ‘taking learnings’ into Wallabies Test

Full-back George Furbank says England will “learn from” their three defeats against New Zealand as they prepare to face Australia in the Autumn Nations Series.

England relinquished leadership positions on all three occasions as they lost a two-match summer series in New Zealand before opening the autumn season with a two-point defeat to the All Blacks at the Allianz Stadium last Saturday.

Steve Borthwick’s team also lost 33-31 to France in this year’s last Six Nations match after Thomas Ramos’ last-minute penalty.

Furbank, 28, says he aims to improve England’s discipline and make “better decisions” in the closing stages of matches.

“Test rugby against the top teams will probably always come in the final quarter but every game is different,” Furbank told BBC Radio 5 Live. he said.

“There are lessons to be learned from last week and the most important one for us was the amount of penalties we conceded in the last quarter.

“We lost five, only conceded a few.

“It’s about giving you space and being smart in that space to finish the game. “We’ve got to be quicker at transferring those learnings into games.

“Ultimately you just want to make good decisions and not let the opposition get in.

“If we had kept the ball better we could have gotten into their half but we gave New Zealand the momentum again.”

England have beaten Australia in 10 of their last 11 matches and will be favorites when the two sides renew the rivalry at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

Furbank said the hosts wanted to play with England’s “DNA” against Joe Schmidt’s team, which had lost their last three Tests.

“We probably didn’t move the ball as well as we could have (against New Zealand) and we missed a few opportunities even before the final quarter,” Furbank added.

“We need to do it right, but it’s about putting our DNA on the field the way we want offense and defense.

“There may be opportunities to play in Australia or go out, but it’s about being loaded on the field to be able to pull both triggers.”