England may have travelled to the other side of the world but some familiar frailties have accompanied them. Even more galling than the end of their successful eight-game streak against the Wallabies was the absolute lack of available excuses and the way they let slip a contest they really should have won. This best-of-three series is far from over but there is now English blood in the water.
By any measure this was an encouraging outcome from Australia’s perspective, who played with 14 men for 46 minutes after their lock forward Darcy Swain was shown a red card for butting Jonny Hill. Given they also lost Quade Cooper to injury before the game and saw another two players forced off inside the first 25 minutes, it was a character-laden victory forged in rare adversity.
