Melbourne, Wellington: England won their first-ever series in Australia with a defiant 23-7 victory over the Wallabies in the second Test in Melbourne on Saturday.
The Six Nations champions, who conquered the second-ranked Wallabies 39-28 in the opening Test in Brisbane, defended magnificently in the second half and then sealed the win through a late Owen Farrell try.
Farrell, who was shifted to inside-centre for the second game, contributed 18 points with his try, two conversions and three penalty goals.
By winning England retained the Cook Cup and hoisted Eddie Jones’s side to second in the World Rugby rankings, some 259 days after flopping out of their own World Cup in the pool stages.
England led by 10-7 at half-time, but had to defend for long periods in the second half as the Wallabies probed for the breakthrough try.
But it never came, due to a combination of the Wallabies’ poor handling and England’s unyielding defence protecting their try-line.
It was yet another tactical masterpiece by England’s Australian coach Jones, who again out-marshalled his counterpart Michael Cheika.
The Wallabies scored four tries in last week’s defeat in Brisbane, but could only muster one this time through skipper Stephen Moore.
The series will finish with a dead-rubber third game in Sydney next Saturday.
Feelings boiled over with a melee in the 12th minute after referee Craig Joubert had awarded a penalty to the Wallabies but reversed it after penalising Australia for foul play from the incident.
England’s powerful pack struck first blood midway through the half when skipper Dylan Hartley scored off a rolling maul close to the Wallabies’ line for a 7-0 lead.
The English supporters willed their team on singing ‘Sweet Chariot’ as the Wallabies made handling errors and struggled for field position.
The English scrum showed their dominance by wheeling the Wallabies to get a psychological penalty to take play back into home territory.
Farrell kicked England further ahead with a 31st minute penalty.
But the Wallabies struck back with the Australian pack pushing over for a try for skipper Moore with Bernard Foley landing the conversion from wide out five minutes before half-time.
The try spurred the Wallabies and they finished the opening half pounding the English try-line and only stout defence held them at bay until the Wallabies lost the ball metres out and England had a reprieve.
England clinched the game and the series when Farrell toed ahead a loose ball and won the chase to dive on the ball.
He converted to put England out of reach by 13 points.
In Wellington, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen had plenty to be pleased about after his side wrapped up their Test series against Wales with a game to spare with their 36-22 win — yet he still felt there was still much to be worked on.
Having been locked at 10-10 at halftime, replacement fly half Beauden Barrett sparked a clinical 10-minute period in the second half to give the world champions a 29-10 lead as they entered the final quarter.
New Zealand extended that lead to 36-10 before the visitors struck back with two late tries.
Hansen, who had felt his team had lacked the timing to seize those split second moments last week in the first test in Auckland, was pleased with a more cohesive performance at Wellington Regional Stadium on Saturday.
