TWICKENHAM -- England got the job done against Australia. It wasn't vintage, nor was it a statement performance, but this is a team who are getting used to victory with this their eighth in a row. And though there are areas to improve, discipline to iron-out, England's eventual, hard-fought, 25-7 win over Australia was thoroughly deserved.
England ended with four tries, Ben Earl galloped away for the opener in the first half and then efforts from Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and Luke Cowan-Dickie steered the hosts home. Part one of four done, with Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina to come this November.
For the most part, this was an ugly sort of match. The type of game where it was littered with the referee's whistle, constantly stopping and starting and only brought to life by some individual dazzling running, rather than any concerted gripping phases of attack until the late stages.
But you can bisect this context between the 52 minutes before England turned to the bench, and then the final half an hour which signalled a renewed intensity from the hosts, with five British & Irish Lions taking the field.
Up until Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Pollock and Tom Curry came on, England had the match there for the taking but simply couldn't find a way to break away from Australia, having been held up over the tryline twice in the first half.
The Wallabies were limited in attack, badly missing their absent quartet of Len Ikitau, James O'Connor, Tom Hooper and Will Skelton, and their points came thanks to Harry Potter's intercept effort. Yet above all this, the referee's whistle was far too often heard to really let the game come to life. That was until Pollock picked up a loose ball in the 59th minute.
Pollock's try was the perfect representation of this England victory. He sprinted away, finally finding space to get into with some pace and rhythm, before being tapped to the floor, halted in his tracks. He got back up, scrambled over the tryline to score, and then had two stumbled attempts at his try celebration, to finally finding his balance to stand in front of the North Stand.
Job done, a circuitous route of getting there, but a victory secured, nevertheless.
Remarkably, this was England's first victory over one of South Africa, Australia or New Zealand since 2022, and it felt like this was a day where we'd hopefully see a statement performance from Steve Borthwick's team. But this wasn't quite a stamp of authority, but more the type of routine victory which fits into an inner-World Cup-cycle montage, rather than one of the more soul-inspiring, memorable kind.
Of the changes Borthwick made, Freeman slotted in well at outside centre, and his direct running skittled Wallabies when he got up a head of steam. There was one occasion where his winger brain overruled the No.13 thoughts, where it'd have made (with hindsight) sense to fling the ball to Feyi-Waboso on his shoulder. Cheers greeted Feyi-Waboso whenever the ball was chucked in his direction, while Earl also sprinted away for England's first after 21 minutes, profiting off a superb bit of play from Tom Roebuck.
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Elsewhere, Ford was his usual reliable self at fly-half, while Freddie Steward took a couple of high balls to finetune his radar before he started to rule the skies. In the pack, Guy Pepper did well on his first Test start at Twickenham but it was the arrival of the bench which took England's intensity to a level Australia couldn't cope with.
From there, Pollock immediately thrilled and grabbed England's second, and England's renewed vim and physicality saw them see off Australia. He finished in the sin-bin, but England's defence held firm as Australia looked for some late consolation.
The pre-match attention was around England's view that Australia had tendencies to do some pretty underhand stuff around the breakdown. The Wallabies were furious at the suggestions, but whether it had any bearing on referee Nika Amashukeli only he knows, but this was a frustrating match to watch.
Rarely were phases strung together, seldom did we get either team really at full flight, and the first flash point of the match only came in added on time past the 80-minute match. That summed it all up, really. Overall, this was definitely England's day. All in all, under grey skies, and sporadic torrential rain, England sent the 81,000 crowd home content.
When Borthwick does his meticulous analysis, you expect that what will please him the most is the manner in which the players clicked, and looked like they'd never been apart. The summer saw 13 picked on the Lions' tour of Australia, and others joining the party. All the while, England picked off the Pumas twice, and hammered the USA.
This autumn the two groups were blended, and this performance produced off the back of limited training sessions. We're seeing depth built, caps earnt and while there were parts of this performance which will need ironing out, this was pretty conclusive.
Australia are improving, but never had a chance to get going against an England side who are growing with confidence, win on win. Up next are Fiji, and then the All Blacks and Argentina come to town. England must target a full house of victories. They are more than capable of the clean sweep.