Australia overcame England's scrum superiority to win their rugby union Test at Subiaco Oval on Saturday 24-17.
Although missing several key players to injury, including star flyhalf Matt Giteau, the Wallabies were able to cling on despite a determined England comeback in the second half.
The Wallabies led 14-0 at the break and looked by far the better side for much of the first half, but two penalty tries twice narrowed the gap to four points as England exploited their scrum dominance in the second half.
However, the Wallabies held on, with flyhalf Quade Cooper capping a fine game by sealing the result with a penalty in the 79th minute.
The unpredictable Cooper ran in two of the Wallabies' three tries, with captain Rocky Elsom providing the third.
The English never crossed their opponents' try line, but Australia twice conceded penalty tries after incurring the wrath of referee Nigel Owens.
The Australian front row of Saia Faingaa, Salesu Ma'Afu and Ben Daley started the game with a combined total of two Test caps to England's 80 for Tim Payne, Steve Thompson and Dan Cole, and it showed.
The Wallabies had no answer to their English counterparts, with the home side conceding a host of scrum penalties.
England were hoping to repeat their most recent win over the Wallabies in Australia -- the 2003 World Cup final -- but were on the back foot from the outset as Cooper, Drew Mitchell and James O'Connor lifted the Wallabies.
The first 30 minutes were dominated by the Australians, who repeatedly threatened the English try line and scored the first two tries of the game
The English were under siege, and the missed-tackle count at half-time was an incredibly lopsided 22-1 in Australia's favour.
First to score for the Wallabies was Elsom, after some sharp passing instigated by Cooper ended with Mitchell sending his captain over out wide in the 17th minute.
Teenager O'Connor, promoted into the starting 15 and coming off a hat-trick of tries for the Barbarians against England on Tuesday, converted the try.
The Wallabies' continued pressure paid off in the 31st minute, with Luke Burgess finding a gap to send Cooper over for an easy try next to the posts, which O'Connor converted for the 14-0 lead that lasted until the break.
The English lifted their game in the last 10 minutes of the first half, when they finally spent some time in the Australian 22.
Danny Care tried to barge his way over in the corner and Simon Shaw got close to the try line only to be driven back.
The second half saw an English revival as they continued the form they found late in the first half.
They were rewarded with penalty tries in the 54th and 69th minutes, but couldn't get the ball back into the Australian 22 in the last 10 minutes.
The two sides will meet again in Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Saturday June 19.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
