Australia hold on to beat England

Although missing several key players to injury, notably star flyhalf Matt Giteau, the Wallabies were able to weather a determined England comeback in the second-half, the visitors earning the wrath of coach Martin Johnson for their disappointing performance.

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 period.

However, the Wallabies held on, flyhalf Quade Cooper capping a fine game that included two tries by sealing the result with a penalty in the 79th minute.

The Australian front row of Saia Faingaa, Salesu Ma'Afu and debutant 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.

However, it did little to hold the home side back and Wallabies coach Robbie Dean said the trio performed to his expectations.

"Pretty good considering what was asked of them physically and the courage they had to show," Deans said when asked how he thought his starting front row coped.

He added "they didn't go into their shells, they kept coming in defence and had the courage to play when they had the opportunity, which was a telling thing for us".

Deans said it was too early to assess if any of the missing injured players would be available for next Saturday's second Test at Sydney's ANZ Stadium.

The unpredictable Cooper ran in two of the Wallabies' three tries, with captain Rocky Elsom providing the other.

The English never crossed their opponents' try line, but Australia twice conceded penalty tries after incurring the wrath of referee Nigel Owens.

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 inspired the Wallabies.

While pleased his side fought back after a horror start, Johnson lamented the number of missed tackles and was angry at the errors made by his players.

"We started very poorly and gave them far too many shots at us," he said.

"We were more than a little bit off the pace and put ourselves in a lot of trouble early on.

"It was a big effort in the second half, but we didn't do ourselves any favours.

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.

Final Score Australia 27 (14) England 17 (0)

Scorers