BRISBANE • England continued their turnaround under Eddie Jones with a 39-28 victory over an ill-disciplined Australia side to claim their first win in Brisbane and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match rugby series yesterday.
Recovering from an early 10-0 deficit, the Six Nations champions scored tries through centre Jonathan Joseph, winger Marland Yarde and replacement Jack Nowell with fly-half Owen Farrell contributing 24 points with his boot.
Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper scored two tries with full-back Israel Folau and Tevita Kuridrani also crossing.
However, Bernard Foley, the hero of the 33-13 victory over England at last year's World Cup, landed only three of his six kicks.
The tourists have never scored more points against the Wallabies and will take huge confidence into the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney after making it seven wins out of seven under Jones.
"We're happy with the result but we didn't play well today," the England coach said.
"All we've done tonight is to give ourselves another game in the series.
"We've made history today but it's not enough for us."
England flanker James Haskell typified his team's effort, ferocious in defence and at the breakdown as the tourists produced a fine display of disciplined aggression in front of 48,700 fans at the Suncorp Stadium.
Australia coach Michael Cheika was left ruing the regularity with which his team were penalised by referee Romain Poite, describing some of the Frenchman's decisions as "odd".
"We didn't play the way we started for long enough," he said. "It makes it hard to get the speed of the game going when you get that many penalties."
England, who held a 29-13 lead midway through the second half, almost let the match slip from their grasp as Australia came storming back to get within four points at 32-28.
But they held firm and when Nowell crossed in the 80th minute, the visitors were able to celebrate taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series for the Cook Cup.
"We struggled in the first 10 minutes," Jones admitted. "Australia put a lot of pace on the ball, which we don't encounter in games in England.
"It took us a while to find the pace of the game and once we did I thought, the next 45 minutes we played some good rugby."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
