England 20 Australia 13: Farrell to the fore as mental fortitude proves key

Neil Back, Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall et al soaked up the applause of the grateful English rugby fraternity who will forever be indebted to what those boys achieved on a famous night in Sydney 10 years ago.

Yet England’s zenith has the knack of burdening future incarnations.

The men who wear the white of the Red Rose will always be measured against that golden generation.

And as they strolled the outer boundaries of the turf they used to grace on Saturday, heaven knows what they must have thought of this latest crop’s chances of emulating them in the next World Cup in two years’ time.

England trailed 13-6 and looked every inch a side who had not played together for four months.

Australia, by contrast, had ruthlessly scored on their one foray into the enemy 22 when Matt Toomua ran straight through a feeble tackle by Billy Twelvetrees.

Although England were on top at the scrum, the fact that Owen Farrell had missed three kicks at goal from almost the exact same position each time, summed up a frustrating 40 minutes for Stuart Lancaster’s team.

As the head coach followed his players into the locker room, and the old heroes paraded the Webb Ellis trophy, Ewen McKenzie sat his Australia players down on the field to conduct his team talk.

It looked a master-stroke, two fingers up to the strutting Matt Dawson and company, and a hint that this Wallabies side were unruffled by the grandstanding going on.

Almost an hour later and smiles were wiped off Aussie faces as England turned the game on its head.

Quite how they managed to lift themselves is anyone’s guess, for even in the first 10 minutes after the interval, the hosts were fortunate not to fall further behind when the mercurial Quade Cooper missed a kick at goal.

That rare abberation was greeted by the loudest cheer of the day from a hitherto subdued Twickenham crowd, and suddenly England were lifted.

Mike Brown, who put in a man-of-the-match shift at full-back, launched a counter-attack from his own line that brought further roars from the massed ranks.

Marland Yarde rampaged down the left and was within a metre of the try line when Adam Ashley-Cooper scythed him into touch.

But England had been roused, and they stole Australia’s defensive lineout. Although they lost possession, a clearance kick was blocked and captain Chris Robshaw dropped on the ball.

Farrell rediscovered his range with the conversion and England, suddenly, were level.

Moments later, sustained pressure inside the Australia 22 prompted by the quick hands of Ben Youngs – who added zest at scrum-half after replacing the stifled Lee Dickson – created the narrowest of openings for Farrell.

Despite Brown screaming for the ball to his right, Farrell spotted a gap 15 metres out, feigned a pass and dashed for the line, his path aided by Dylan Hartley, who some referees may have seen block an Australian forward’s path.

After a long look, the video referee thought otherwise and England’s resurrection was complete.

Their renaissance in those short 10 minutes was embodied by Farrell, who, despite a first half when nothing went right, had the mental strength to put that behind him.

“It’s something I learnt pretty early on when I started playing,” he said of his ability to bounce back.

“You’ve got to move on because you’ve got to focus on your next job. If you only focus on what’s just happened then you’re not going to have a grip on the game, and that’s what a 10’s job is.”

Asked if he has a routine to eradicate the negative thoughts, Farrell’s response was as quick as his opportunism. “No, I just get on with it,” he said.

This was very much a getting-on with it performance by England.

There were very few moments of attacking ingenuity, and the signs of rust were obvious. Mistakes were plentiful, and although they were dominant in the scrum and competent at the lineout, for the first 50 minutes the only question was just how many would Australia score.

Yet England found a way to win. They defeated one of the big three without being anywhere near the benchmark they set 11 months ago against New Zealand.

Lancaster’s men closed out victory with sensible game management and staunch defence when Australia threw 14 men at an attack.

Farrell said: “We know we have things to work on, but we’ll put that right and be confident going into next week.

“Australia have been together for a long time, have played a lot of Test matches, whereas we’ve only had a couple of weeks together, and not all of those days were spent training.

“But we’ve used those days well, got plenty of detail in there and a lot of that has paid off.

“The character the lads showed, the fight and the way we came out in the second half and took the game to them was outstanding.”

England: Brown, Ashton, Tomkins, Twelvetrees (Flood 67), Yarde, Farrell, Dickson (B Youngs 55); M Vunipola (Marler 55), T Youngs (Hartley 55), Cole (Wilson 67), Launchbury (Attwood 76), Lawes, Wood, Robshaw, B Vunipola (Morgan 67). Unused replacement: Foden.

Australia: Folau, Ashley-Cooper, Kuridrani, Toomua, Cummins, Cooper, Genia (White 67); Slipper (Robinson 58), Moore (Fainga’a 69), Alexander, Timani (Douglas 63), Horwill, Fardy (McCalman 50), Hooper, Mowen. Unused replacements: Kepu, Leali’ifano, Foley.

Referee: G Clancy (Ireland).