England packed their Six Nations failings in their luggage for Australia. They lost a game they should have won with something to spare, and not just because Australia played the last 47 minutes a player down, having failed, before the late arrival of Henry Arundell, to make much of the possession they enjoyed.
A turning point came on 56 minutes when England, after another purposeful run by Jack Nowell, attacked Australia's line. Lewis Ludlam continued the move and was a metre short when he was hauled down.
Quick ball would have made a try more likely than not at a time England were leading by two points and the Wallabies were hanging on.
Ludlam presented the ball but the first player in support, Jamie George, flopped over the ruck and out of the move. By the time Ellis Genge arrived, Australia's captain Michael Hooper had his hands on the ball and duly won a penalty. It demanded the question why he had not been cleared out.
There are few more predatory jackallers than Hooper, a player whose force of will rubs off on those around him to make an ordinary team something more, yet he was given a free pass to scavenge. Had Tom Curry still been on the field, Hooper may not have got away with it but, as in the Six Nations match against Wales, the Sale
flanker did not return for the second half. His absence was felt that day in February as England conceded their advantage at the breakdown and, very nearly, their healthy lead. England had three backs from free-running Harlequins yesterday, but slow ball makes their attack clunky and reliant on missed tackles.
They are like a football team that is imperious until it reaches the penalty area and certainty crumbles. Australia were rarely put in doubt, despite the promptings of Marcus Smith who exhausted his repertoire in trying to find a spark, and when they were they responded. England's best move came in the first half when Owen Farrell acted as first receiver. Smith ran on an outside arc and the defence tracked him, providing a gap for Tom Curry to exploit and take play into Australia's 22. He threw a long pass to Joe Marchant on the right wing, but Marika Koroibete cut him off and England failed to exploit the position.
Familiar failings, but again England did not have their staples to fall back on. They started strongly in the scrum but before the end were shoved off their own ball, they lost an early lineout and although Ellis Genge scored their first try following a penalty that was kicked to touch, their driving maul struggled to get out of first gear.
And so England could not find a way to win a match they were on top of for the first hour against opponents who lost their outside-half in the warm-up, two players to injury in the opening 25 minutes and found themselves a man down seven minutes before the break after Darcy Swain reacted to Jonny Hill pulling his hair by headbutting the England second row.
It was the second time in as many weeks that England had had the advantage of an Australia lock being dismissed just after the half-hour mark, but just as they failed to exploit Will Skelton's absence at Twickenham when they faced the Barbarians, so the Wallabies raised their effort and at the point when they would have been expected to start to flag, Billy Vunipola was sent to the sin-bin for a high challenge on Hooper, the cue for two tries to settle the match in the home side's favour.
The last time the two teams had met, at Twickenham in November, England won 32-15. They scored two tries that afternoon, at the start and the finish.
In between was a lot of effort for no reward and a lack of discipline which allowed Australia to keep in touch through the boot of James O'Connor.
Eddie Jones said after the match that Swain's dismissal prompted the referee James Doleman to even up the match by penalising England. He said it was normal, although it was not an argument advanced by anyone in the camp after Charlie Ewel's early red against Ireland in the Six Nations.
There were a few marginal calls that went Australia's way, and that Dave Porecki was allowed to get away with some throws in the line-out that were crooked enough to prompt his full-back to make a dash for the ball shows how the game is tolerating certain rule-breaking to encourage flow, but the bottom line is England again coughed up soft penalties at times when they were not under pressure.
They allowed Australia to catch a breath and regroup at times when they were being squeezed. It was a Wallaby team ripe for the taking, a team in transition 15 months out from the World Cup. England were not organised enough to take advantage, unable to deliver quick enough ball, yet again, to allow Smith to play what was in front of him rather than try to force openings.
Arundell's late cameo gave the scoreline a false look after Australia had shown England how to create openings close to the line. That he made more metres than any other England player despite only touching the ball twice in his brief time on the field said everything about a team that has talent but not direction.
There will be calls for Arundell to start in Brisbane and pace is another commodity England lack, but as long as the old problems remain even he would struggle to make the difference. England are far, far better than they are making out, but they need a firm hand on the tiller to provide direction.
Why was Alex Mitchell left out of the squad? If Smith is to be the attacking fulcrum, he needs a co-pilot inside him and, for all his strengths, Danny Care is not a controller. England are like a crossword solver who breezes through the first half of the puzzle and then struggles to finish it off.
Losing a player, even of Curry's stature, should not be material. But it continues to be. And as long as it does England will continue to resemble a firework that flares fiercely but briefly and then fizzles out.
