England was motivated to build on the 54-21 victory from the week before against Fiji. Australia, on the other side, got beaten badly by France with 33-6 and wanted to make up for the loss. However, England has been strong at Twickenham and has won 11 games against the Wallabies, lost 9 and drew 1 over the last years. Also, Toby Flood was excited to face Australia as he is the player that scored 25 points in one match against Australia – largest score ever by an English player.
England started well into the game and took the lead after only 3 minutes. Fly-half Flood scored the first 3 points with a penalty from the left. The Wallabies scored the equalizer in the 13th minute, when Berrick Barnes converted a great drop-kick from the right – 3-3. It took both teams awhile to find their rhythm, but Flood made it two out of two in the 24th minute when he scored a huge kick from well inside the England half – 6-3 England! However, Barnes equalized again in the 31st minute through a penalty – 6-6. Flood and Barnes both dominated on either side. Flood converted another penalty in the 34th minute – 9-6 England. However, out of nowhere found Australia a try just one minute later. Danny Care with a poor kick for England and Cummins is put through by scrum-half Phipps -9-11 Australia! Five minutes late, England scored a very controversial try through Tuilgi and took the 14-11 lead at half-time. England was lucky to be up.
The second half started and Australia wanted to turn the game around. Barnes came back strong and converted 3 penalties in a row and secured a huge lead for Australia right after the halt-time – 14-20 Australia. England was nowhere to be seen and Australia’s confidence grew. The 81,000 fans supported England, but the Lancaster team wasn’t able to come back. The final score was 14-20 for Australia.
Berrick Barnes was the man of the match with his impressive 15 points. England and coach Lancaster suffered a big setback, but they have to recover quickly. England has now only won 1 of the last five matches, but have a chance to improve their record in the next weeks when they face South Africa on November 24th and New Zealand on December 1st.
England: 15-Alex Goode, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Manu Tuilagi, 12-Brad Barritt, 11-Charlie Sharples, 10-Toby Flood, 9-Danny Care; 1-Joe Marler, 2-Tom Youngs, 3-Dan Cole, 4-Geoff Parling, 5-Tom Palmer, 6-Tom Johnson, 7-Chris Robshaw (captain), 8-Thomas Waldron.
Replacements: 16-David Paice, 17-Dave 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; 1-Benn Robinson, 2-Tatafu Polota Nau, 3-Ben Alexander, 4-Sitaleki Timani, 5-Nathan Sharpe (captain), 6-Dave Dennis, 7-Michael Hooper, 8-Wycliff Palu.
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.
