A try in both halves from Ben Morgan helped England claim a well-deserved 26-17 victory over Australia at Twickenham.
England displayed excellent composure in defence and made the most of their possession by running in two tries to claim a massive psychological advantage with the World Cup a few months away.
The Wallabies outscored the hosts 14-13 in the second half but failed to overturn a 10-point half-time deficit.
Scrum dominance, allied to fine work at the breakdown led by England captain Chris Robshaw, were the cornerstones of England’s victory.
The win saw England end the November programme with a 50 percent success rate after defeats by both world champions New Zealand (24-21) and South Africa (31-28) were followed by last week’s 28-9 win over Samoa.
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But for Australia, adjusting to life under new coach Michael Cheika following the shock resignation of Ewen McKenzie in the fall-out from the Kurtley Beale text picture scandal, the result meant they had endured their worst European tour since 2005 when they also lost three out of four Tests.
This trip saw the Wallabies beat Wales but Saturday saw them lose for the third successive time after narrow defeats by both France (29-26) and Ireland (26-23).
In addition to No 8 Morgan’s scores, the rest of England’s points came from the boot of flyhalf George Ford, given another chance to impress after starring against Samoa.
Before the match began, there was a moment’s applause in memory of the late Phillip Hughes, the Australia cricketer who died on Thursday last week, after being hit on the head by a ball while batting in a domestic match two days earlier.
After an early exchange of penalties between Australia flyhalf Bernard Foley and Ford, it was Ford who kicked England into a 6-3 lead after full-back Mike Brown was tackled late by Wallaby No 8 Ben McCalman.
Australia’s impressive back division almost found a way through and it needed a good tackle on centre Adam Ashley-Cooper by lock Courtney Lawes to snuff out a try.
There was a huge cheer when England shoved Australia back at the ensuing scrum – an area where they had enjoyed success against the Wallabies in previous matches.
Wallaby captain Michael Hooper twice refused to go for the posts with penalties, opting for close-range line-outs instead.
But excellent ruck defence, led by Hooper’s opposing skipper and fellow-openside flank Robshaw, kept Australia at bay.
And it was England who scored the only try of the first half when superb play by Ford, who gathered a stray pass and then got away a low kick which led to a knock-on by Australia full-back Israel Folau, set up a scrum near the Wallaby line.
England drove hard at the set piece before the ball came out to Brad Barritt. Scrum-half Ben Youngs and flank Tom Wood then combined to send Morgan in from 10 metres.
Ford converted and England were 13-3 ahead.
Either side of half-time, the flyhalf missed long-range penalties, which, had they gone over, would have left Australia with a mountain to climb.
Instead, Australia hit back with a try. Foley fed Rob Horne and then taking a return inside pass for a 45th-minute try under the posts which he duly converted.
But, curiously, Foley was then immediately replaced by Quade Cooper.
England, though, hit back in the 57th-minute when Morgan scored his second try.
Brown’s clever grubber-kick led to Cooper, chased by England wing Jonny May, being tackled into touch behind his own line.
From the resulting five-metre scrum, England drove Australia backwards and Morgan plunged over for a try which Ford converted to make it 20-10.
But Australia responded on the hour mark when replacement forward Will Skelton, who had only been on the field two minutes, powered his way over for a try after good work by the impressive Ashley-Cooper.
Quade Cooper converted and England’s lead had been cut to 20-17.
However, Ford’s 64th-minute penalty edged England into a 23-17 lead.
Australia kept pressing but saw a potential try go begging with Folau’s poor pass to Horne.
Ford’s 77th-minute penalty put England two scores in front and sealed victory.
Man of the match: Matt Toomua had a great first half, Bernard Foley had one of his best games of the year and Nick Phipps was impressive. Ben Morgan impressive with more than just his try-double and Courtney Lawes had his best game of the year. However, our award goes to England captain Chris Robshaw for the best all-round performance by some distance.
Moment of the match: It has to go when we saw England centre Brad Barritt smiling through a haze of blood, after twice taking heavy knocks to the face.
Scorers:
England:
- Tries: Ben Morgan (2)
- Conversions: George Ford (2)
- Penalties: George Ford (4)
Australia:
- Tries: Bernard Foley (1), Will Skelton (1)
- Conversions: Bernard Foley (1), Quade Cooper (1)
- Penalties: Bernard Foley (1)
Teams:
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Brad Barritt, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (Captain), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 David Wilson, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 George Kruis, 20 James Haskell, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Marland Yarde.
Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Michael Hooper (Captain), 6 Sean McMahon, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Sam Carter, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Saia Fainga’a, 1 James Slipper
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Benn Robinson, 18 Ben Alexander, 19 Will Skelton, 20 Luke Jones, 21 Nic White, 22 Quade Cooper, 23 Kurtley Beale.
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Mathieu Raynal (France)
TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)