England 32-15 Australia 
by David Nicholson
at Twickenham

ENGLAND won the Cook Cup and their eighth successive victory over the Wallabies after making heavy weather of Saturday’s contest at Twickenham.

The win gives England a one-game lead, 26-25, in the contest between the two old enemies.

Despite the predominance of possession and playing against 14 men for 20 minutes, the home side only stretched away late in the second half.

Marcus Smith showed delightful skills as he set up the opening try in the sixth minute, using a sleight of hand to send Freddie Steward over for his first international try.

England coach Eddie Jones was unusually fulsome in his praise of Steward’s man-of-the-match performance at full-back.

“He is courageous in the air in a way that I have not seen since Mike Brown,” Jones said.

The coach also praised the interplay between Owen Farrell and Smith before Steward was put through to score.

“I thought it was probably one of the best tries I have seen from an England side.

“Our handling, our running lines, hitting the holes was absolutely outstanding.

“We want to do more of that. It is not going to happen all the time, but I thought that was really promising.”

However, the story of the match was the ill-discipline both sides showed with a penalty count that marred an otherwise free-flowing game. 

In the 29th minute, Wallaby winger Tom Wright was shown a yellow card by referee Jaco Peyper for a high hit on Jamie George as he burst towards the try line.

Seven minutes into the second half, visiting prop Angus Bell was also sent to the bin after television match official Stuart Berry spotted an outlawed tip tackle on Courtney Lawes.

Australian coach Dave Rennie was blunt about his side’s shortcomings.

“We were not good enough tonight and we got hammered on the penalty count,” he said.

“If we could have strung a few phases together we could have put them under some heat. But most of the issues were our own doing.”

England reached half-time with only a four-point lead despite enjoying the majority of possession, a man advantage and with Australia conceding 10 penalties.

Within seconds of the resumption, they gifted a further three points to Australia to bring the visitors a score away from taking the lead.

Each time England scored they put the Wallabies back in the game as they gave away penalties straight from the kick-off.

The home side also had five lineouts just five metres from the Wallaby try line, but failed to convert that quality possession into points.

England captain Owen Farrell said: “We will take the win but we can be a lot better than that.”

Sam Simmonds was introduced to the field to the delight of the Twickenham faithful with just 10 minutes left on the clock.

The Exeter favourite scooped up the ball and sprinted towards the Wallaby line before passing to Jamie Blamire to cross the try line.

Blamire has now scored in four Tests running, plundering six tries — an astonishing scoring feat for a hooker.

Both Farrell and Aussie skipper Michael Hooper went off in the second half with foot injuries, with the results of their assessments pending.

Next Saturday is England’s first game against South Africa since the 2019 World Cup final loss.

“Both sides have changed since 2019,” Jones said. “This is one of the youngest teams I have coached, but both sides are developing for the 2023 World Cup.

“We will have to take away the Springbok scrum and maul weapons and we will have to play differently to beat them. 

“It’s the final game of the autumn and we want to go into the Six Nations with a South African scalp.”