England's 'Bomb Squad' decides hard-fought clash

England may not quite not yet look like the bona fide World Cup winners they have confidence they can be in two years' time, but this was nonetheless a positive first step on the long journey to Australia 2027.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

It took plenty of graft and grit to overcome the Wallabies but overcome they eventually were, with a ferocious defensive performance and second-half surge getting England off to a solid start in their autumn campaign.

In the process, a few ghosts of last November were perhaps banished. Australia's victory here 12 months ago had been something of a heist, snatched at the last in an autumn of discontent in which England seemed to have forgotten how to win. This was a very different game, yet there would have been some satisfaction in how, having shipped 42 points to their visitors a year ago, they kept the Wallabies to only a 95-metre intercept try here.

Clearly, the New Zealand clash in a fortnight shapes as the key contest in assessing this developing side's top-tier Test credentials but one could see the pieces that Steve Borthwick is trying to put into place. England's battalion of back rowers caused havoc at the breakdown on a day of the jackal in which they spoiling and stealing proved crucial, while their band of British and Irish Lions lurking among the replacements made their presence known in a final quarter as they tasted victory over the Wallabies once more. Their impact was hefty, and crucial as Borthwick perhaps intended.

It was a shame, of course, that Australia were missing a few key cogs, Joe Schmidt unable to select the Europe-based Will Skelton, Len Ikitau, Tom Hooper and James O'Connor with this game falling outside of World Rugby's stipulated international window. Still, England would have learnt from last year not to take even a weakened Wallabies lightly.