Brendan Gallagher verdict: England claim redemption

Never underestimate the power of redemption and the urgent bloody-minded need to prove yourself right and the other buggar wrong.
It's the strongest motivator in sport. You can talk big and slag the opposition off as much as you want,  play mind games and devise intricate game plans but mostly it comes down to how badly you really want it. And that is all about your mindset and what drives you on, the disappointments and failures that haunt you.
The England team and back bench were full of driven individuals yesterday from Eddie Jones downwards. Jones has coached around the globe for the best part of two decades but, despite taking Australia to the 2003 World Cup Final, he isn't really rated in his own country.
The Australians sacked him two years later after a string of bad results – “they divorced me I didn't divorce them” to use his own phrase – while his last spell coaching with Queensland was disastrous with the Reds finishing bottom of the Super 14.
In the big scheme of things England's Six Nations Grand Slam was nice enough for Jones … but an away series win in Australia would be almost career defining. Only a World Cup win in Japan in 2019 would ever top that.
So Jones, who is pretty high octane even during his quieter periods, has been buzzing infectiously ever since England landed in Brisbane in the middle of a cyclone 12 days ago. He has been whipping up a storm ever since with his invocation of Bodyline tactics and a diehard mentality.
It is impossible for England players not to feed off his manic desire for victory although the trick of course is to channel that energy surge and not blow a fuse.
Jones himself set a good example by stepping away from the heat of battle and taking the icy calculated decision to replace Luther Burrell on the half hour. For whatever reasons the England midfield defence – an area of strength in the Six Nations – was looking porous with the moving of Owen Farrell to ten and the introduction of Luther Burrell at 12.
The objective but harsh solution was to bring George Ford on at ten, take Burrell off and switch Farrell to 12. But how many coaches would have the killer instinct to make that call?
Others had redemption on their mind as well yesterday.  The last time Ford went to work on a rugby pitch he was booed loudly by his home fans at Twickenham. Ford is a cool cat and the most pleasant of young men but don't think that didn't hurt horribly, as did his initial dropping by Jones for this match.
When he ran onto Ballymore yesterday, unexpectedly early with 50 minutes in which to make his mark, the Bath fly-half was a man on a mission. Freed from kicking duties he could concentrate 100  per cent on his own game. He would show the buggars!
Did he ever with both his general game and two trademark pieces of inspired skill, that gorgeous long spin pass off his left hand to make a try for Marland Yarde and then, right at the death, his perfectly weighted chip through for Jack Nowell.
Ah yes, Jack Nowell, the Exeter right wing who had been dropped by for “not being quite sharp enough” despite the fact that he was the Chiefs' man-of-the-match in their last two games –  their Premiership semi-final win over Wasps and in the final defeat against Saracens.
He has been predatory all season and he was another player on a mission when he finally got into the game yesterday. That game-clinching try would have felt sweet as a nut.
Then there is Chris Robshaw who stoically took all the criticism aimed at him and his team post World Cup while refusing to blame or trash anybody else. Apparently he wasn't in the same class as Hooper and Pocock in the Aussie backrow, he wasn't a natural poacher of the ball, he didn't make enough big hits and wasn't dynamic enough running forwards. Take a look at yesterday's match again and observe again the power of redemption.
That applies to James Haskell as well, labelled along with Robshaw as another six and half by Eddie Jones when he took over. Actually Jones is right, Haskell probably won't ever be a seven in the true sense but, given the way he played yesterday, that relentless power and combativity, it was utterly irrelevant what number he had on the back of his shirt.
Finally, away from individual cases, this was a collective exercise in putting the record straight.
The major humiliation of the World Cup, the game that plunged a nation into despair, was the abject performance against Australia, the feeling that in their own World Cup England didn't really fire a shot in anger in the match that counted above all others. Not even a Grand Slam really healed that wound but this glorious victory over Australia in Brisbane did exactly that.
Sunday was the day England put the nightmare of RWC2015 to bed.