England ended a three match losing streak against Australia with a 20-21 victory in Sydney on Saturday.
Australia went into the match having won the last three matches against England after last weekend's 27-17 victory in Perth.
Australia won on their last two visits to Twickenham and the last time England beat Australia was in the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter final in 2007.
England last beat Australia in Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final.
Australia could have won the match in the final five minutes when Matt Giteau missed a penalty kick as did Jonny Wilkinson a minute later.
Matt Giteau did however score all of Australia's points with two tries, two penalties and two conversions.
England continued where they left off last week by taking the game to Australia at pace. Two of England's new stars in Ashton and Youngs scored the visitor's two tries.
A week after being outclassed by the Wallabies in every area except the scrum, England were superb in attack and defence to level the two-Test series.
Each team scored two tries Saturday, but England were far more committed and dominated an out-of-sorts Australia in both the forwards and the backs.
"I think (the difference) was attitude -- we let ourselves down pretty badly last week and we had to address that," England captain Lewis Moody said.
"From one to 22, the whole squad was fantastic... the whole squad has really come together this week."
Fittingly it was replacement flyhalf Wilkinson who kicked the winning points, seven years after booting a drop goal at the same ground to win the 2003 World Cup.
But every English player can stand tall after defying the critics to strike a blow for rugby in the northern hemisphere.
"It was a cracking Test match," England coach Martin Johnson said.
"I thought our defence was a lot, lot better than last week and we didn't give them the chances early on that we did last week."
Newcomers Ben Youngs at scrumhalf and lock Courteney Lawes justified their selection, while the back three of Ben Foden, Mark Cueto and Chris Ashton, hardly seen in the first Test, looked dangerous whenever they touched the ball.
"I thought (inside centre) Shontayne Hape, particularly in the first half, was very effective for us" Johnson added.
"And Ben Youngs as well, getting the forwards into the game."
England opened the match with much greater intensity than in the first Test in Perth and put pressure on the Australian inside backs, forcing a host of early errors.
They were rewarded when the Wallabies gave away a defensive penalty in front of the posts and Toby Flood put England ahead 3-0 after just three minutes.
Five minutes later referee Romaine Poite penalised English prop Tim Payne for a punch in the scrum and Matt Giteau duly equalised with a simple kick at goal.
He made it 6-3 soon after with a penalty from 45 metres out, but the English were rewarded for their enterprise when Youngs scored a wonderful solo try, taking the ball from the back of the line-out, darting past the Australian forwards and outpacing Drew Mitchell to score.
"I think our intensity tapered (from the first Test), particularly in the defensive line," Australian coach Robbie Deans said.
In an entertaining first half the Wallabies struck back almost immediately, Giteau scoring after a superb break from winger Digby Ioane to put Australia ahead 13-10.
But England were soon in again as winger Ashton scored his first Test try, steaming on to an inside ball from lock Tom Palmer and breaking through the attempted tackle of James O'Connor.
Flood's conversion attempt went just wide and England went into the break with a well-deserved 15-13 lead.
The Wallabies backs had been well contained in the first half but they gave a show of their brilliance three minutes into the second as Quade Cooper and O'Connor broke away down the sideline before sending Giteau away for his second try and a 20-15 lead.
An Australian scrum collapse allowed Flood to narrow the gap to 20-18, almost his last act before being replaced by Wilkinson.
The Wallabies scrum much better than in the first Test, but another collapse saw Wilkinson kick a penalty from in front and an England lead.
Giteau had three chances to put the Australians back in front but missed them all, including one from right in front of the posts with 10 minutes to go, and England comfortably held on.
"That's not my proudest moment," Giteau said. "But these things happen -- no excuses."
England will look at the tour as a big success despite not winning the Cook Cup back. They lost last week's match but drew with the Australian Barbarians in their first match.
In the second match against the Australian Barbarians they beat them for a two win, one loss and a draw record so far.
England now travel to New Zealand to play the New Zealand Maoris who beat Ireland yesterday.
Final Score Australia 20 (13) England 21 (15)
Scorers
Australia
Tries - Giteau 2
Pen - Giteau 2
Con - Giteau 2
Drop -
England
Tries - Youngs, Ashton
Pen - Flood 2, Wilkinson
Con - Flood
Drop -
Referee: Romain Poite (FRA)
Teams (15-1)
Australia - James O'Connor; Digby Ioane, Rob Horne, Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell; Quade Cooper, Will Genia; Richard Brown, David Pocock, Rocky Elsom (captain), Nathan Sharpe, Dean Mumm, Salesi Ma'afu, Saia Faingaa, Ben Daley.
Replacements - Huia Edmonds, James Slipper, Mark Chisholm, Matt Hodgson, Luke Burgess, Berrick Barnes, Adam Ashley-Cooper.
England -15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints) , 14 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks) , 13 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby) , 12 Shontayne Hape (Bath Rugby) , 11 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints) , 10 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers) , 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) , 1 Tim Payne (London Wasps) , 2 Steve Thompson (CA Brive) , 3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers) , 4 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) , 5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais) , 6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) , 7 Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers) (C) , 8 Nick Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements: 16 George Chuter (Leicester Tigers) , 17 David Wilson (Bath Rugby) , 18 Simon Shaw (London Wasps) , 19 James Haskell (Stade Francais) , 20 Danny Care (Harlequins) , 21 Jonny Wilkinson (RC Toulon) , 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish) ,
.jpg)
