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
ben7 says...
@jonesy2
Thats not a hammering. A hammering is what the convicts got last weekend.
4th string wallabies? Youre only missing 6 players from your starting team. Thats less than SA and ireland. horwill, pocock, higginbothom, genia, mccabe and o'connor
People like you are why no one likes australians
Posted 19:52 17th November 2012
JayStarr says...
Well done Wallabies - I knew you could lift yourselves and beat the Turkish Delights... Or was that the Tandoori Chickens?
Maybe if England starts showing their jersey some pride and stop picking 2nd rate SH players they can become a feared rugby team again.
Posted 19:44 17th November 2012
RedRoseMark says...
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...!
Posted 19:43 17th November 2012
andy1000 says...
Forward pass for the Oz try and double movement for Manus so please no complaining that either side had the advantage.
Posted 19:36 17th November 2012
froggy73 says...
@jonesy2: 4th string Australia ?? Seriously. Your team was the best available and you were not missing more that 3 or 4 key players so stop talking rubbish. It's because of guys like you that I always wish Australia to lose.
France taught you a rugby lesson 7 days ago, don't forget it and stop gloating.
Posted 19:34 17th November 2012
7ton says...
Good comeback for Australia considering last weeks performance against France. But why in the last 15 mins when they were leading by just 6 points did they keep kicking the ball straight back to England when they could have kept the ball and maybe finished them off?
England played well overall but couldn't finish of their chances and perhaps should have kicked for goal instead of going for tries.
Posted 19:26 17th November 2012
jmanngod says...
Thought this might happen. England were puffing their chests (how strange) and the Aussies were keeping tight-lipped and looking under pressure. That's when the Wallabies are at their best - always! Well done as they scrap it out for the last group leader of RWC2015
Posted 19:26 17th November 2012
sextons_on_fire says...
Interesting to see Wales and now Enger-land can't beat Australia.......yet Ireland beat them comfortably at the World Cup, so........hahahahaha BOOM
Posted 19:18 17th November 2012
heart_of_oak says...
well well, I do believe I said that all my fellow englishmen who were 'crowing' could find that attitude coming back to haunt them. I wonder how they all feel now.
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.
Not for nothing were Australia the number 2 in the world until very recently.
And now I will make another prediction : I predict that this loss will turn out to be good for us. We won't beat the ABs yet and I'd say it's unlikely that we will beat the Boks. BUT... our lads will now learn to be much more ruthless. Maybe it takes an embarrassing defeat to give you that desire to be ruthless.
I'm now more confident than I was before that we'll either win the 6N or a very close 2nd and after that I think we'll do very well indeed at the world cup. We needed an almightly kick up the arse to become more ruthless and this loss could just be the catalyst.
I suspect there will be alot of anger and wounded pride in the England camp tonight. And there should be. And there needs to be.
Finally, please everyone, don't go doing a Guscott any more. (i.e. predicting outcome a only for outcome b to transpire) because you just look silly.
Posted 19:12 17th November 2012
Patagon says...
Various issues:
First things first: Congratulations to Australia! Well played mate. A well deserved win, a show of character. I'm neutral here and could see the Aussies were fired up against the English. Why is this? ;)
About Aussie scrum: please please, commentators -from all parts- refrain from criticize the Aussie scrum as if it was a handicap. It may not be their stronger point but even to my far away eyes, they have mission well accomplish against toughest opposition (South Africa, Pumas, AB, England). Come on, be more balance when criticizing them.
About England: I had this feeling during most of the match that you were going to have some explosive runs. Also, that you were in control of the score. I think you let it go, they nicked it. Still, I think England are a bit of a sleeping giant regardless of this result.
Posted 18:26 17th November 2012
alanatleeds says...
Well done Australia but I think European refs are nieve in not understanding cynical defending and let southern teams off the hook by being reluctant to issue yellow cards.
Posted 18:22 17th November 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
We lost it at loose head prop.and no 8. And this is not hindsight assessment. Easter and Sherridan were obvious selection omissions pointed out at EPS announcement and after. Very very dissapointing as this should have been a win and was key. Hanson can head home. He has no opponents to challenge his team. Wales are even worse. Shame France are not playing ABs.
Posted 18:08 17th November 2012
LondonWasp says...
@jonesy2
how is 6 point lead 'smashing'??????
Oz were just lucky that england just couldn't finish.... at least three times a try seemed on the cards and then a stupid pass (Farrell) or knock on or no ability to catch a ruddy ball.
shouted SO loud at the pub TV
irritating to say the least.
I knew this game would be close...
well done to Aussie!
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...
more improvements are needed if we want to beat SA, no chance of beating NZ though...
Posted 17:59 17th November 2012
Philly says...
The weirdest "try" I've seen.It was clearly not on or over the line and was still awarded?
Posted 17:59 17th November 2012
rolf says...
That was not a deserved win.
The second half completely belonged to England, who just gave away too many Pens, maybe due to purple kits?
Though not highclass, a very determined, entertaining game of Rugby.
It will be exciting to see with wicch gameplan they address die Bokke.
Posted 17:59 17th November 2012
chisel68 says...
Not only did England lose, but someone put red socks in the same wash as their white jersey!
Posted 17:57 17th November 2012
westwest says...
Think the wallabies played to the best they could today but again England are there own worst enemies! Talking them selves up after playing an average team and thinking that they are world class. Getting beaten by this OZ team is a big worry and just go's to show what a long way they have to go to be a top player. We all know that there backs are average on there best day, but there forwards to get beaten up front today by a 3rd string OZ pack is quite frankly A joke and should not of happened. A lot of hard work for the English coming up over the next few years if they want to have a chance at the next RWC. Great result for me today as I made a few squid on the Wallabies, as the geniuses at PP had the English at favourites. Did anyone think that they would really win?
Posted 17:51 17th November 2012
Terry_English says...
jonesy2 - you give Australians a bad name by gloating when you win. That's why everyone cheers for your opposition when your team plays. It is a pity really because Australia showed lots of heart and deserved to hold out.
I was disapponted in Robshaw's decision making when England had three kickable penalties. It was bad enough that he made the wrong choices but he didn't need Toby Flood to change his mind.
Hugely disappointing to lose a game that with good captaincy could have been won, or at least drawn!
Posted 17:50 17th November 2012
Froggy73 says...
Well done Australia, but still a lot of work to do imo. They played much better than last week that is for sure, but I have to say the opposition was really weaker. It is still a win away. So job done. Not a game that will stay in my memory though.
As for England, or dear. Their rugby is too predictable (Flood has a big part of responsabilities there). Last thing: English fans were very confident with their scrum before the game, I saw an Australia's scrum dominant.
Posted 17:49 17th November 2012
carpelone says...
Australia can lose to Italy next week.
I was under the impression that Poite was protecting the fourth place of France in IRB ranking, Australia should have been finished in 14 men.
Lack of execution cost the game to England.
Posted 17:27 17th November 2012