Ten overs into proceedings and the Taswegians who had pitched up at the Bellerive Oval brimming with pride could have been forgiven for wondering if the first time they played host to Test cricket’s oldest rivalry might also turn out to be the last.

Australia were 12 for three on a snooker table pitch that looked prepared for some good old-fashioned English seam-up with the pink ball. David Warner and Steve Smith had already shuffled off with ducks next to their names and Joe Root, a captain who has increasingly worn the look of a bulldog chewing a wasp during the fag end of this failed Ashes campaign, was suddenly beaming.

But come 10.11pm, after an hour of barely discernible rain had blown in from the Derwent estuary and brought a premature end to the opening day of this day-night fifth Ashes Test, the locals were surely sated. Travis Head had delivered a magical cavalier century from No 5, Cameron Green had offered the latest hint that he will become a dominant force for Australia and England were again pondering self-inflicted wounds.

Head’s 101 from just 113 balls upon his return to the home side after a brief, asymptomatic bout of Covid-19 was his second century of the series. Allied with a counterattacking 44 from Marnus Labuschagne, and Green’s second successive score of 74, the South Australia captain had turned the home side’s inauspicious start into 241 for six from 59.3 overs; not dominant, granted, but against a team that had lost its only centurion on tour, Jonny Bairstow, to a thumb injury, none too shabby either.

Head had fallen the ball after his second century of the series, Chris Woakes the man to strike, while Green had been suckered into a short-ball plan from Mark Wood just moments before the weather held sway. But while these wickets represented brief cheer for England’s otherwise ailing change bowlers, and Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson had been incisive when the Kookaburra ball was box-fresh, the latter’s disappearance after the first interval with an apparent back spasm let Root down. Add Zak Crawley’s drop off Labuschagne before the world’s No 1 batter had got off the mark – the second slip leaping across Root at first only to grass the ball – and it left the latest sense of “what if’’ on a tour featuring an abundance of them.

For England the hope is that this serves as the day the penny drops for Robinson. The 28-year-old was devilish first thing after replacing the injured Jimmy Anderson, presenting an upright seam and nipping out Warner and Smith. Warner was suffocated for 21 balls before feathering his 22nd to Crawley at second slip, while Smith was squared up with hard hands to give the youngster another. In between Broad ended Usman Khawaja’s promotion to opener after those Sydney centuries, the left-hander expected one to come in, only for the opposite to be true and fly to first slip.

But one over into his work during the second session – and for the third time this series – Robinson trudged off the field. Injury can strike at any time, of course, but over the course of the series a belief that Robinson simply isn’t conditioned for the rigours of Test cricket has been hard to shake. Indeed it was apparently the one caveat on his otherwise glowing scouting report before his debut last summer: for all the abundant skill he possesses from that high release point, and the confidence that saw him state that first cap was overdue, he needs to work harder on his fitness.

It meant Root bowling his off-breaks 33 overs into a day that began with him winning the toss and announcing five changes to an XI that had no Jack Leach. Although by this stage Australia’s counterattack had already been launched, Labuschagne first signalling the charge initially in a stand of 71 alongside Head with an array of swashbuckling swipes. It was finally ended before lunch in utterly slapstick fashion, Broad returning to bowl the right-hander around his legs and leave him flat on the floor when his footwork aped the ice-skating polar bear mascot that recently went viral.

But from 85 for four at the start of the second session, Head and the newly arrived Green helped the home side plunder 130 runs in the space of 28 overs and the loss of only one wicket as the early seam movement disappeared. Woakes looked rusty after a two-match absence and a recent painkilling injection for an angry shoulder, adding more weight to the arguments of those who see him as a home specialist. Wood continued a series of impressive speeds but saw the ball skid on nicely from the surface and he leaked an alarming 79 runs from just 11.3 overs.

Head, who raided 152 during the first Test at the Gabba, is a batter who needs no second invitation to dispense with anything loose, with his backfoot punch and his cover drive murderous. The 9,000 locals who took in this slice of history in Hobart may not have seen Tim Paine’s homecoming after the former captain was sacked on the eve of the series, but they took Head to their hearts when – the ball after nearly offering Woakes a return catch on 99 – he guided a couple down to third man for his fourth Test century.

The next delivery he chipped Woakes to mid-on, Robinson wincing as he took the catch, while the diligence shown by the impressive Green in an 80-ball half-century was finally undone when he hooked Wood to Crawley on the square-leg boundary. Ultimately, however, a day that began with Sam Billings earning his first Test cap and England seizing the early initiative had been well and truly flipped on its head.