ENGLAND seem to have forgotten about last year’s Rugby World Cup embarrassment.

Soundly beaten by the Wallabies at Twickenham in 2015, Eddie Jones’ England will face 15 of the 23 Australian players that lost the World Cup final when they take the field at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

But a leading British newspaper declared Michael Cheika’s Wallabies were “not a team to strike fear into opposition.”

This is despite Cheika rolling out the Wallabies’ biggest centre pairing — Samu Kerevi and Tevita Kuridrani — and Australia’s tallest ever player, Rory Arnold.

England are cock-a-hoop after winning their first Six Nations since 2011.

Six straight wins under Jones have lifted the spirits after they failed to get out of the pool in their own World Cup.

And they don’t intend on letting up.

“This is a beatable Australian line-up,” wrote The Telegraph’s Mick Cleary.

“This is not an Australian team to strike the fear of God into opponents.

“This is not a side that can stand comparison with those Wallaby greats who have won World Cups (twice) or who gave it such a crack in the 2015 tournament.

“This is not the sort of gold-and-green outfit that did such a number on England in that self-same competition.”

The 2016 Wallabies pose for a team photo at Ballymore Stadium. Source: Getty Images

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The absence of key men Matt Giteau, Will Genia, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale is said to have made the Wallabies vulnerable.

What the scribe forgets is that fullback Israel Folau is now fully fit after hobbling through the World Cup.

Loose-head prop James Slipper is also fit and firing after battling through 2015 with a dodgy shoulder and knee.

“But England have a sniff, an opening,” Cleary said.

“This is their chance to make their mark, even if they themselves have much to prove.

“England should not be daunted by what they are about to face.

“Australia will stand fair and proud and all that.

“But this is an opportunity for England.

“By such a measure should we judge them.”

Cheika is being ‘thoroughly outplayed’

Meanwhile, Cleary’s colleague at The Telegraph, Steve James, has questioned Cheika’s decision to not give England any verbal ammunition in the build-up to the first Test.

Cheika has steered clear of any inflammatory comments and not risen to the bait laid by his old Randwick teammate Jones.

“I wouldn’t pay any credence to what he’s saying at the moment,” a bemused Jones said.

“The new, mellow Cheik has a lot of deception about him, so let’s just wait and see.”

It left James equally confused.

“What’s up with Michael Cheika?” James asked, comparing his tactics to a batsman letting the ball go through to the keeper.

Steve James says Michael Cheika has been thoroughly outplayed by counterpart Eddie Jones. Source: AFP

“Well, at the moment it is not even a contest,” James commented.

“Cheika is being thoroughly outplayed.

“Jones is simply running rings around him.

“Many coaches prefer to keep a low profile in the media, usually because that suits their character best and therefore that suits the team best.

“But when a coach so obviously acts out of character, as Cheika is doing now, it sends out a message, and it is not a particularly confident one.

“England, and especially Jones, must be thinking that very same thing about him right now. “What is Cheika scared of?”

Eddie Jones is simply running rings around Michael Cheika, according to The Telegraph’s Steve James. Source: AFP

Like the ‘USA having a great cricket team’

Over at The Times, veteran rugby scribe Stephen Jones queried Cheika’s decision not to recall France-based stars Giteau, Ashley-Cooper and Mitchell.

“Is it confidence tinged with arrogance that Michael Cheika, the superb coach, has not recalled his icons from France — or are they just knackered?,” Jones wrote.

He added that if England does not win the opening Test, the momentum gained under Jones will quickly come to a grinding halt.

“If England do not win at the Suncorp, it is difficult to see them avoiding a whitewash,” Jones said.

“Australia will surely train on, will weld together and will pick up momentum.

“They will also have had more time with Cheika, one of the true supercoaches of the era.

“Cheika can do in four weeks what some recent England coaches could not achieve in four years.”

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is one of the true supercoaches, according to Stephen Jones. Source: AAP

What makes Jones even more anxious about England’s fate is the strides that the Wallabies scrum has taken under Cheika and set-piece guru Mario Ledesma.

“The other thunderous inconvenience is that Australia do not have the usual yawning weakness begging to be exploited,” he said.

“They have a scrum, a very good one.

“This is the equivalent of the USA having a great cricket team.

“And it is painfully ironic for Jones because when he was coaching Australia and notably in the 2003 World Cup, he didn’t have a prop to call his own.”

Grand Slam ‘hardly a thing of beauty’

According to Stuart Barnes, the former Test fly-half, England’s only hope of beating the Wallabies Down Under is to continue their aggressive tone forged throughout the Six Nations.

Free-flowing rugby won’t be played.

“For those who envisioned the Eddie Jones era as one where England found themselves playing free-flowing rugby, forget it for now,” Barnes wrote in The Times.

“Aesthetics are out, intimidation is in.

“The RBS Six Nations Championship grand slam was hardly a thing of beauty.

“England are instead focused on doing the basics better, which was not hard as they threw the basics of the game out the window during the World Cup last year.”