Wallabies are harder opponents than All Blacks says England great

England’s most-capped player Ben Youngs believes Saturday’s encounter with Australia at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium will be the “hardest game” for Steve Borthwick’s side this Autumn Nations Series.

England will play their first Test in over three months on Saturday, kicking off their autumn campaign before clashes with Fiji, the All Blacks and Argentina.

Despite the World Rugby rankings suggesting otherwise, with the All Blacks ranked second and Argentina ranked sixth, the 127-cap Englishman believes the lack of preparation time for Borthwick’s squad will be a hindrance.

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Though England did hold a mini-training camp last week, the majority of the matchday squad that will face the Wallabies were playing in the Gallagher PREM last weekend before the full England squad assembled this week. Not only will that take a physical toll on the players, but Youngs believes the lack of preparation the team have had will be a hurdle to overcome against a Wallabies side that not only played last week against Japan, but finished their Rugby Championship campaign a month ago.

While the All Blacks are ranked five places above Joe Schmidt’s side, Youngs says the extra time in camp will leave England in a “far better spot” come the later stages of November.

“For me, the hardest game England face is this first one,” Youngs said on the For the Love of Rugby podcast. “That is purely because of the training time, the limited preparation they’ve got and that some guys haven’t played a huge amount.

“They play Fiji, and then they play New Zealand the following week. By the time they play New Zealand, three weeks in camp, they’ll be in a far better spot.

“There’s a lot on this one, it plays into the crowd and the atmosphere because the crowd’s expectation is they don’t really know.”

Youngs’ fellow podcast host Dan Cole added: “As a player, it’s a massive test for them on a short week, in physical prep, but the mental game and their game plan.”