Approaching the fifth minute, England fly-half Marcus Smith cleverly nudged the ball beyond the Australian defensive line, where it was claimed with aplomb by centre Ollie Lawrence. The hosts recycled the ball well – including some sublime play between front rowers Jamie George and Ellis Genge - moving it wide for a walk-in try for blindside Chandler Cunningham-South. It was ruthlessly efficient rugby from the hosts right from the off.
Wallabies fly-half Noah Lolesio then struck a 45-metre penalty to reduce the damage of Cunningham-South’s try: 5-3, with ten minutes gone.
The visitors would have been well aware of the multitude of threats posed by Smith, but no sooner had Lolesio made his kick than his opposite number was swerving through the Australian defence to put England in a dangerous position inside the visitors’ 22. From there, the men in white were held up on the line, only for the ball to come back to Cunningham-South at pace to barge his way through for his second try in five minutes. Smith added the extras: 12-3.
There were signs that England were here to play fast and loose, and the Allianz Stadium crowd reacted accordingly, with gasps and excited cheers echoing out across south west London. The Wallabies too had some moments of adventure, only for a penalty to stymie their momentum and Smith to increase England’s lead to 12 points.
After the opening quarter, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s instrumented mouthguard alerted the officials to a possible head injury. His removal while doctors assessed the winger opened the door to Ollie Sleightholme’s third cap, and last season’s Premiership top try-scorer would see out the match when Exeter’s Feyi-Waboso failed to return.
The headline-hogging inclusion of league convert Jordan Suaalii in the Australian midfield wasn’t without merit. The 21-year-old displayed some eye-catching handling, suggesting there is a lot more to come this Autumn Nations Series campaign from a young man playing his first game of union since he was a schoolboy.
In fact, it was just such a moment of ball-playing magic in the 26th minute that led to fullback Tom Wright’s try, as Suaalii produced something akin to a basketball wrist-flick pass over the English defender to send his teammate through unopposed. Lolesio’s conversion from out wide was superb: 15-10.
The next points came from something far more prosaic: an England scrum penalty gifting Smith and his team a further three points from an easy kicking position: 18-10.
Australia enjoyed their brightest spell just after the half-hour mark, a change of direction in attack well in the English half from newly-arrived scrum-half Tate McDermott caught the home defence napping. The Queensland Reds nine slipped to the ground in his haste, but also managed to slip the ball away to captain Harry Wilson to touch down for the first Test try of his career. Lolesio converted to make it a one-point game: 18-17.
Valetini was at the heart of nearly everything good the Wallabies did in the first half, and his carrying aided their venture into England’s 22 just before the 40 minutes were up. There, referee Ben O’Keefe blew for an Australian penalty that Lolesio gratefully took up to give his side the lead going into the second act.
The first-half statistics told a story, with England trailing Australia in all indexes bar tackle success rate (and in that they led by only 2%). How would England react in the next 40 minutes?
It was Australia who started it brighter. Suaalii was growing into the game, playing well off inside centre Len Ikitau and fullback Wright. This was the Australia fans have longed to see back on the Test stage. Whether they could continue to play with such confidence – and whether it would translate into points – was soon to be answered.
A lineout in the hosts’ half led to Australian forward pouring down the blindside after a front ball off the lineout was quickly passed back to hooker Matt Faessler to set off the play. Openside Fraser McReight, a rising star of the game, committed the defender then passed to second row Jeremy Williams to dive over: 18-25.
The Wallabies had well and truly bared their teeth, and a Joe Schmidt-like killer instinct was on full show when they immediately worked their way right up the field once more from the restart, earning themselves a penalty for their efforts. Now there was a ten-point cushion to Australia’s advantage, Lolesio responsible for ten of them with his unerring boot.
Marcus Smith wasn’t to be outdone on his home turf, however, and created something from nothing when, off the back of a scrum in Australia’s 22, he went down the short side. A three-on-four was in Australia’s favour, but the Harlequins playmaker made a trademark grubber through two men for Sleightholme to score: 23-28 with just under an hour gone.
England retook the lead with a try in the 67th minute that was made just over the road at the Twickenham Stoop. Harlequins Smith and replacement back rower Alex Dombrandt were both pivotal in the build-up to Sleightholme’s second try of the match; the fly-half – now playing from fullback - jinking his way past the defence, centre Ollie Lawrence hitting up, and Dombrandt ultimately putting in the assisting pass for the score out wide. The icing on the cake for the home crowd, and no doubt a relieved head coach in Steve Borthwick, was Smith’s deft conversion: 30-28.
But there was still fight left in the Wallaby. An overrun line from Lawrence, and he failed to claim replacement fly-half George Ford’s pass The ball hit the deck and away sprinted grateful wing Andrew Kellaway on a swerving run, evading the retreating England defenders to score. Australia converted to go five points clear with fewer than five minutes remaining.
If this match wasn’t already a rip-roaring Test match, it certainly became one as England immediately hit back, surging into Australian territory, where Maro Itoje forced his way over the line for the try. Smith added another excellent conversion to his haul for the day: 37-35.
The Wallabies had one final chance when Itoje knocked on at the restart, and after a number of scrums seemed to drain any momentum, the Australians quickly went wide and some breath-taking passing - including an offload out the back from Ikitau - sent the ball out to Max Jorgensen on the wing to run in the match-winning try. Donaldson converted: 37-42, which is how the score remained.
England have never scored this many points at their home stadium and lost, but this was an extraordinary Test match in which extraordinary things happened. One of those was the naming of Suaalii as Player of the Match.
The Autumn Nations Series has perhaps introduced the next global rugby union star to the world.
