Nowell scores in England win

By Mark Stevens
11/6/2016

Exeter Chiefs duo Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie both came off the bench as England beat the Wallabies for only the fourth time in Australia as they triumphed 39-28 in a mighty battle in the first Test in Brisbane.

The win looked unlikely when they fell 10-0 behind early on as Michael Hooper and Israel Folau scored for the hosts, but Eddie Jones’ side hit back through the boot of Owen Farrell and tries from Jonathan Joseph and Marland Yarde.

After the break Australia - who included Greg Holmes and Dean Mumm in their ranks - rallied as Hooper and Tevita Kuridrani crossed, before Cornishman Nowell had the final word for England, finishing off a stunning counter-attack from the tourists.

It was England's first-ever win in Brisbane and also their biggest ever down under over the Wallabies, surpassing the 25-14 victory in Melbourne in June 2003 that came five months before Jonny Wilkinson's drop-goal beat Australia in the final of the 2003 World Cup.

Saturday's points tally was their highest in any match against the Wallabies, but Jones has not dragged England out of the dark places of last year's World Cup exit by getting easily carried away.

"We didn't play well tonight, we're happy with the result but we didn't play well," the Australian told reporters after the game at the Suncorp Stadium.

"We gave the Wallabies some easy tries and we'll need to work on our defence. We made history today but it's not good enough for us. It's all about next week."

Next week is the second test in the three-match series in Melbourne and Jones said there would have to be improvement if England were to remain on course for a first series win in Australia.

"It took us a while to find the pace of the game but when we did, I thought of our next 60 minutes we played 45 minutes of good rugby," he added. "We can improve significantly in our ball carrying and our second man work, we can improve significantly in terms of our defence spacing and we can still put more pressure on Australia at the set piece."