Australia coach Eddie Jones was proud of his team after a 21-19 Cook Cup victory over world champions England at Twickenham in London Saturday ended the Wallabies’ poor run away from home against rugby union’s major nations.
Not since a 23-15 victory against the All Blacks in Dunedin in 2001 had Australia enjoyed a Test win in either New Zealand, South Africa, England, France or Ireland.
And that run almost continued on Saturday after they had gone 15-0 ahead thanks to tries from Jeremy Paul and Chris Latham as well an Elton Flatley conversion and Matt Giteau penalty.
But England, pointless until the 49th minute, then scored tries through Lewis Moody, Josh Lewsey and Mark Cueto, plus two conversions from third-choice kicker Mike Tindall, to go 19-15 up heading into the final quarter.
However Giteau, forced to move from centre to fly-half as early as the 23rd minute, held his nerve to land two late penalties.
”It was definitely a mental breakthrough for us,” said Jones, whose side were beaten 27-14 by France in Paris earlier this month.
”Maybe we’ve found the reason why we played so poorly away from home, we played conservatively. Today we were under the pump but we had the courage to keep playing the way we wanted to play.
”That’s a good sign. We’ve got to make sure we put that in the memory bank and don’t lose that,” the former ACT Brumbies chief added after the conclusion of a European tour which also featured two victories against Scotland.
Giteau’s success rate of three goalkicks from five attempts was in contrasted to England’s combined tally of two from five.
And the ACT Brumbies back, 22 on Monday, also had a superb game in open play his break creating the space for hooker Paul’s try.
”We lost some backs before the game,” said Jones of injuries that deprived Australia of fly-half Stephen Larkham, centre Stirling Mortlock and South African-born wing Clyde Rathbone.
”And Flats was our most experienced inside back. For Gits to move in at 10 was a really good effort. He’s a talented player, a very, very good footballer. His goalkicking is at 80% plus on this tour and this is his first season kicking in Test footy. He’s a got a pretty good future.”
For England, thrashed 51-15 by Australia in Brisbane in June, this was a first defeat under coach Andy Robinson, who said: ”Our second half was tremendous, the three tries we scored were superb.
But we lost our composure a little bit in the first half and didn’t get those points on the board.”
Robinson defended his 23rd minute substitution of centre Henry Paul, England’s back-up goalkicker, with World Cup-winner Will Greenwood, after the former New Zealand rugby league back had been off-target with some passes, saying: ”Henry made a number of mistakes and we felt it was right he came off.”
Charlie Hodgson, England’s hero with 27 points in last week’s 32-16 win against South Africa, had a day with the boot to forget, missing two routine first-half penalties.
But England kicking coach Dave Alred defended the fly-half’s display, saying: ”Charlie’s not a poor kicker, he’s a great kicker. People do have off-days.”
And just over a year on from England’s World Cup final win over the Wallabies, Robinson insisted his new-look side would learn from this reverse.
”We lost a game of rugby we should have won but the guys will be stronger and better for it.” – Sapa-AFP