Australia 27 England 17
The Wallabies couldn't scrum and the English couldn't pass - and it made for a fascinating contest and a contrast of styles.
The Wallabies scored three tries by running and passing, the English scored two penalty tries by propelling the Australian scrum into the ground and directing them towards China.
If England were ever going to beat the Australians at home, then it must have been against these Weakened Wallabies.
Down a whole front row and with inspirational halfback Will Genia on the bench, with a young side that everyone says isn't yet ready for great things, the Wallabies were surely sitting duckbill platypuses.
The English pack were huge, they clattered into the tackles, rucks and mauls with purpose. Their scrum, as expected, had the Australians heading backwards like an old EH Holden down a hill.
But rugby is about more than size and set-piece skills, more than kicking for position and for mopping up the penalties. It's about speed, use of the ball and elusiveness and, not for the first time, the employment of the latter in the Southern Hemisphere outweighed the percentage play of the northerners.
The Wallabies fielded the kicks happily, looked to break the line and get their trademark support play going. They have runners and passers like Quade Cooper and Berrick Barnes who have an innate sense of distribution and timing and who made their opposites look more than a little carthorse-ish.
They also have runners like winger Drew Mitchell, so dangerous from broken play. They have second-string halfback Luke Burgess who made the first two tries with blistering bursts through an English defence so worried about Cooper they forgot about covering the aggressive No 9.
Mitchell scored the first when he blasted through a scattered England chase after another kick. The attack went left, almost fizzled out before it was worked right. Fullback James O'Connor made space with a pass and Rocky Elsom thundered around to score.
O'Connor is another who epitomises the difference between these two teams. He might look like a cherub but he can play.
Early in the first half, he again showed the difference between inventiveness and lack of imagination - slapping the ball out of an Englishman's hands so the Australian loose forwards could claim it and mount an attack. Who needs to be good at scrums when you can just slap the ball free?
England came close to scoring at the end of the first half by their traditional method - big, heavy forwards banging it up the middle slowly, recycling and re-gathering. Australia held them out - just - and preserved a 14-0 lead at halftime.
The second try came from another Burgess burst and a slick pass to Cooper who slipped in under the bar.
England finally got on the board in the second half - guess what, a penalty - before mounting their best attack.
Fullback Ben Foden ran on the counter, winger Chris Ashton linked with lock Simon Shaw before veteran centre Mike Tindall made a fine break. The defence just snuffed them out. Then followed more crash and crunch, setting scrum after scrum before, finally, referee Nigel Owens lost patience and whistled for a penalty try.
So Australia decided to pass the ball and Cooper got his second try as the English were outflanked by a giant Cooper pass. Digby Ioane got through and the pop pass produced their third try.
England attacked hard again, driving through their forwards and Tindall. The Wallabies survived more long periods of bash-and-grunt, the pressure only relieved when England sent it into the backs.
On it went, until prop Salesi Ma'afu was yellow carded for persistent infringement and then came the second penalty try. At 21-17, the Australians had to keep the ball. They did and O'Connor and Cooper kicked penalties that meant England had to score twice to win.
They didn't. So the team that ran and passed beat the side that scrummed. Which is, when you think about it, how it should be.
Australia 27 (R. Elsom, Q. Cooper 2 tries, J. O'Connor 3 con, pen; Cooper pen), England 17 ( 2 penalty tries; T. Flood 2 con, pen). Halftime: 14-0.
