Stronger: Adam Ashley-Cooper
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A powerful performance from Australia led to a 20-14 victory over England at Twickenham, with Berrick Barnes kicking 15 points.
In front of a packed crowd at Twickenham, England opened the scoring with a penalty from Toby Flood with two minutes gone, but it was Australia who held the edge early on in terms of territory and possession.
The Wallabies were on top in the opening scrums and it proved to be the foundation for Australia's first score of the afternoon as Michael Hooper burst through on the left hand side, Berrick Barnes eventually sending through a drop-goal from straight in front.
Australia continued to play with width, Nick Cummins giving the English defence cause for concern as he continued to find space down the right wing.
Flood put England back in front with a long-range penalty but Australia responded by putting the home side under pressure deep on their own try line, the TMO ruling out a score after looking at numerous replays.
A penalty at the resulting scrum however led to Barnes levelling the scores from straight in front, but Flood responded to take the score to 9-6.
Cummins then grabbed the first try of the afternoon after a poor box kick from Danny Care led to a break from Australian scrum-half Pat Phipps, who slipped through a gap in England's defence and fed an unmarked Cummins for the score.
It was England however who had grabbed the final points of the first half, a tapped penalty by Care putting Australia on the back foot before the ball went wide to Manu Tuilagi.
The Leicester centre dived and allegedly did enough to ground the ball on the line, putting England back in front and leaving the score at 14-11 at half-time.
Barnes drew both teams level at the start of the second half and then put the Wallabies in front after a perfectly weighted chip behind the defence from Beale was gathered by Hooper, leading to another penalty kick to give Australia a 14-17 lead.
The Wallabies regained possession from the restart and a break from Tapuai almost released Cummins on the outside again only for Sharples to intervene. Australia's dominance at the breakdown resulted in England being penalised, with Barnes stretching the visitors lead to six points.
An English response was needed and it came with a powerful surge towards the Australian try-line, the hosts launching a series of driving mauls towards the Wallaby line, Thomas Waldrom going close but knocking on as he dived for the score.
The home crowd did their best to lift England's performance but the error count continued to rise as Australia controlled the breakdown and the scrum, winning yet another penalty which Barnes failed to convert from long-range.
A tapped penalty from replacement Ben Youngs brought the crowd to their feet as England persisted to go for the try rather than taking the points on offer, but Australia again turned over possession, stifling England's momentum.
It was a similar story for the rest of the second half as Australia dominated the breakdown, repelling a series of attacks from the home side deep into their own 22 but emerging on top on every occasion, to clinch an important victory for coach Robbie Deans.
Man of the match: Who needs David Pocock? Openside Michael Hooper had a fine afternoon.
Moment of the match: After sustained pressure, Thomas Waldrom just couldn't get the ball down.
Villain of the match: Not a memorable afternoon for Joe Marler at the scrum, the Harlequin struggling against Ben Alexander.
The scorers:
For England:
Try: Tuilagi
Pens: Flood 3
For Australia:
Try: Cummins
Pens: Barnes 4
Drop Goal: Barnes
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Charlie Sharples, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Mike Brown.
Australia: 15 Berrick Barnes, 14 Digby Ioane, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dave Dennis, 5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Brett Sheehan, 22 Mike Harris, 23 Drew Mitchell.
Comments
JamieTheProp says...
Ah well, could be worse, we could be Wales!
Posted 00:26 18th November 2012
ferdie says...
Celebrate that try!
Qantas Wallabies now have a handy lead over Julian Savea for the 2012 season, 13 v 10. 2 matches to go, couild be close.
Posted 00:21 18th November 2012
leinster_goy says...
@Honestpom
"scrum-time as always brilliantly reffed by Mr. Poite who really knows what he's doing there."
please, i beg of you, tell me that you were jesting when you said that
Posted 23:59 17th November 2012
Kneegrow says...
England's Try should not have been awarded. Tuilagi lost control short of the line. Any placing of the ball, after that, would be a double movement.
Posted 23:49 17th November 2012
Trader2 says...
Well done Wannabies, good comeback from last week and now Dingo will without doubt remain in charge through to the Lions visit. Australia gad to improve 100% from last week and they did, England also had to imnprove from their outing against Fiji (Ireland put that win into perspective today) and they didn't. England tried to go wide but had no idea against a Wannabie defence which really hasn't been that bad all year.
England's problems are encapsulated by @LondonWasp above - "On the plus side though, loosing by under a converted try to a Tri-nation team is no bad thing, considering Wales lost to both Samoa and Argentina" 2nd best is acceptable it would seem in old Blighty. In any event England deserved to lose for wearing those poxy shirts.
Posted 23:39 17th November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
Yeah, saw this coming, TBH. Let oz gloat, we've been doing it in rugby, the olympics, cricket, we can eat a bit of humble pie. Just hope England hate the taste and remember it.
On the bright side, this bodes well for the lions tour. Oz are no walk overs. They are in strife but man, they've got some serious character. Good bounce back.
Posted 23:39 17th November 2012
jimbosim says...
This result puts every team back into prospective, England have not progressed and will not. Ireland put away Fiji today with an A team select??? Wales are having a bad spell, but they will be there come the start of the 6 nations, Ireland have not been tested yet, France have clearly moved forward, Scotland are getting there but still a long way to go?
6 nations prediction,
France
Wales
Ireland
England
Scotland
Italy
Posted 23:04 17th November 2012
sirtidychris says...
What do people read and listen too between matches ? England were not cocky at all no players came out and said that the fiji game was entirely amazing and australia will be a walk over, almost every player said there were good bits against fiji but the aussies will be an entirely different affair especially against the english with their backs to the wall. On the other hand the aussie have been releasing media sound bites all week about smashing our scrum and having pretty wingers etc....now all the non-english posters here have rewirtten the story to suit there own predujices..... the arrogant engish have been boasting all week about how good they are and the quiet and humble aussies did the buisness. The truth is the aussies were a completely different team than the one against france as usual everyone seems to up there game against the english, the english on the other hand were back to the stupidly high error count but may have still sneaked it with better choice between run and kick. Well done australia as a team under pressure away from home you came up with the goods, bad luck england you were soo close but a few changes in personnel and better descision making and we will be getting there.
Posted 23:01 17th November 2012
Melkiwi says...
Australia are at an all time low but they still managed to win amazing. And um what's up with the English strip? Reminded me of those Cadbury chocolate ads lol. Well done Australia hard luck Cadbury.
Posted 22:56 17th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Jaystarr, They obviously have no pride in their jersey, They can not even make up their mind what colour the thing should be.
Can you Imagine the Bokke, the ABs or even the Wobblies playing in those pj shirts?
Posted 22:54 17th November 2012
astrospange says...
Eng desperately a 10 that moves onto the ball. Flood shows it in patches and only when he is linking with Youngs. Eng still try to use route 1 and not the whole of the pitch. This is were they need a different option at 13. Keep Manu at 12 and find a fast and skillfull 13. Apart from that the scrum was ok but Marler kept missing his binding. At least Eng have room for improvement.
Posted 22:52 17th November 2012
Bambo says...
Heart of Ache - The Australia France game was a one off. If those two sides played each other again, there is no way France would beat Australia so convincingly.
Don't be so sure. France just dealt with Argentina tonight in pretty convincing fashion. Two bogey man sides beaten inside 1 week. Is this the start of a France side with some consistency? Looks like it might be. They could probably deal with Australia again next weekend.
Allez!
Posted 22:39 17th November 2012
LondonWasp says...
@ RedRoseMark
"Where does all this 'England talk themselves up' nonsense come from?? Not one word from the team other than 'beware an oz backlash' and even the press said 'it as only Fiji' etc...so frankly these are just lazy, stereotypical opinions. If you're going to say something, at least give some thought to a fact or two...!"
THANK YOU!!!
Posted 22:34 17th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Fancy the Purple Plonkers losing to the Wallabies, after the English press had written the Aussies off..
Posted 22:27 17th November 2012
side_stepper says...
Where are those prideless anti-Wallaby Ozzies? Don't see them calling for Deans' head now that they've won!
Posted 21:14 17th November 2012
dingo says...
Oh why so much hate from so many England supporters? Could it be that your best team lost at 'fortress Twickenham' to an under strength Wallaby team that most of you had written off?
Posted 21:03 17th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Redrosemark, that came across as a tad bitter old son.
Posted 20:46 17th November 2012
MacTavish says...
And the Wallaby Merry Go Round continues, Dog Tucker last week, Redeemed this week and Deans Safe again... for another week. Ah the Soap Drama that is Aussie Rugby... Now they think they are all good again... Blah Blah! I swear to God Australia has TWO teams, by the looks of the past few years results they each get a week about. Hilarious!
Posted 20:43 17th November 2012
TVaddict says...
Well I predicted this, but I still very disappointed with the result. At the end of the day it was the naive tactics that let us down. When we have beaten Australia the last two times it was because we never surrendered possession easily, and ran almost everything. Arguably we have a team which is even better in attacking free flowing rugby, but instead we continually kicked the ball away. I don't think I've been so annoyed at the amount kicking and the shear lack of quality when it was done. This was a coaching error as we don't see Care play like that for his club, and Flood was part of the rampant England team which dismantled Australia two years ago. It's simple, starve Australia of possession and your always in with a chance of beating them, so why did we do the exact opposite?
So, changes. Marler has been found lacking come scrum time plus his open field play, which is meant to be one of his biggest strengths, has been shoddy to say the least. Vunipola or Corbasiero to start next week, we can't afford to allow repeated bad performances from players, especially when there are other options. Waldrom played a lot better today but I still don't see him as a long term option or a better short term option than Easter, so I'd bring Easter into the 8 shirt. Launchbury and Wood made a great impact when they came on so I'd have them start in place of Palmer and Johnson respectively. They're also more physical which we'll need to at least get parity against South Africa. Farrell is not an international 10 I'm afraid, that pass at the end was a shocker, so I'd have Burns on the bench. I don't feel like the Goode experiment has worked so I think I'd prefer Brown to start, but I'd be ok with trying it for one more game.
Posted 20:17 17th November 2012
Honestpom says...
Well done Australia, deserved victory though they did not have to be at their best to achieve it. They just about had the edge at scrum-time as always brilliantly reffed by Mr. Poite who really knows what he's doing there. Easy in hindsight to critizise Robshaw for not taking the potential 3 points but i thought go for it at the time. Two very hard games coming up now, no getting away from it, today was a backward step for England and a huge dissapointment.
Posted 19:52 17th November 2012