England finished the 2018 Six Nations Championship in their lowest-ever position in the league table, and their worst since the 1983 Five Nations Championship, finishing in fifth place having only beaten Italy (46–15) and Wales (12–6). England's consecutive losses to Scotland, France and Ireland were their first triple defeat since 2014. Their loss to Scotland was the first since 2010, and their loss to Ireland was the first at home since 2010. A 45–63 loss against the Barbarians followed in May of the same year, with former England international Chris Ashton scoring a hat-trick of tries against his ex-teammates. England's run of defeats continued into the June test series, when they lost the first two matches of their three-test series against South Africa. However, they avoided a 3–0 series defeat by winning the third test 25–10 to claim their first win in South Africa since 2000. When former "All Blacks" and "Eagles" coach John Mitchell joined the coaching team as defence coach, England achieved a return win (12–11) against South Africa in a tightly contested match on 3 November in the 2018 Autumn Internationals. Another close-fought test against New Zealand a week later also finished with a single-point scoreline difference (15–16), but this time in favour of the opposition. England then won their remaining autumn tests against Japan (35–15) and Australia (37–18). The win against the "Wallabies" was England's sixth consecutive victory over the Australians, continuing their perfect record against Jones' former team during his tenure.