Ah. However promising it may have seemed for England, there was always something not quite right about that Test match against the Pacific Islanders last week. And now we know what it is: it was not a proper Test match.
Australia gave England nothing, took more than was seemly themselves, and as the young home team's belief started to disappear out of the window, to join their composure that had never arrived in the first place, the visitors accelerated to what looked a comfortable win on the scoreboard. More galling for England is that the most decisive turning point of several was a scrum just past the hour in which they were annihilated. And so Australia put paid to several years of hysterical laughter in this part of the world over their scrummaging. Marseille 2007 – that fateful World Cup quarter-final in which England destroyed their scrum – has now been consigned to the past.
But what of England's future, we keep asking. There is no less reason for looking forward to it after this. A little more wit would probably have been enough. Likewise some experience, of which they have an invaluable dollop more now.
Yet though they may have turned round at the interval 12-11 down, they had been the better side throughout the first half – or at least produced the more threatening patches of play, which may not be quite the same thing – only to rue a lack of composure that this Australia side was plenty good enough to exploit. But how often have we said that of Australia? This -vintage in particular almost always looks -second best on the field against the -bigger nations but nearly as often can point to a scoreboard that is telling a different story. They are a rope-a-dope team that can absorb blows all day and emerge from the chaos at opportune moments to register points.
England gifted them six points within almost as few minutes of the first whistle. Tom Rees went off his feet as he went for the ball at a tackle with too much enthusiasm in the third minute, and four minutes later Steve Borthwick piled through a line-out before he should have. Matt Giteau thanked them both and it was 6-0 before anyone had got going.
The highlights of the half, though, were England's. Danny Cipriani ghosted through Australia's midfield to precipitate a tilt at the line by Lee Mears, but Giteau had enough pace to cut him short into touch. From the clearance, though, Delon Armitage took a while to size up his options and sent a low-flying drop goal over from a good 40 metres.
A neat illustration of England's -problems followed soon afterwards. A penalty at a scrum (the much--anticipated scrums were a mess from the off) that represented a likely three points for England was tapped before anyone had time to think about it by the overeager Danny Care. He was isolated, lost the ball and Australia kicked deep. A couple of phases later and hands in the ruck allowed Giteau to make it 9-3.
Then it was 12-3 on the half-hour from another penalty. But to England's credit they got their heads down and drove. Care made some amends by dispossessing Adam Ashley-Cooper after an Armitage up-and-under, and Andrew Sheridan drove close, only to be denied by the video referee. But from the next scrum, England went right and Nick Easter, a robust presence throughout, drove over for the game's first try.
Cipriani, who had missed the conversion and an earlier penalty, slotted another shot just before the break, and England trailed by only a point.
The speed and decisiveness of the recovery were encouraging, and England carried on where they left off straight after the break. Cipriani went clean through again. Nothing accrued that time, bar a scuffed drop-goal attempt from same a couple of phases later, but England's golden boy was on target soon after to earn England the lead for the first time with a 48th-minute penalty.
But what happened next? England were charged down, Australia won a five-metre scrum and from it a penalty when Sheridan's hand went to the floor. Giteau slotted from an angle to re-establish Australia's lead.
He lengthened it a few minutes later. Australia still could get nothing going. From one half-hearted attempt, Care ripped the ball off Ashley-Cooper again but was tackled almost immediately. The referee decided he was holding on, and over went Giteau's sixth penalty.
It was all most heartening for the Aussies, but their catharsis was yet to come. In the 64th minute there was a scrum just inside England's half. Australia's scrum has been ridiculed here for some years, Sheridan having taken left various Aussie tightheads in a crumpled heap on the floor, never more so than in Marseille last year. The Aussie props had treated this week's abuse in good humour.
Now they decided to bite back. Benn Robinson and Al Baxter on either side of Stephen Moore erupted into the England scrum, and the collapse – England's this time – was total. Tom Croft tried to scramble England's ball back in the carnage and the penalty was Australia's. It was an angled 50 metres out, so up stepped Mortlock to exorcise demons of his own; having missed from similar range in the quarter-final last year. This time he nailed it. Much more than that, though, Australia had revenge at last.
Their body language now said as much. The symbolism kept coming. Sheridan limped off a couple of minutes later – nothing to do with a scrum, but the point had been made. And Ashley-Cooper embellished it when he dived over in the corner with Wycliff Palu and Giteau respectively smashing through and toying with the England defence.
Cipriani was now off, his ankle having taken a worrying knock earlier in the half from which he had never quite recovered. So all of England's new questions had been answered fairly emphatically by Australia, not to mention a load of the hoary old ones. There's a way to go yet.
