Australia’s golden wall holds before Noah turns tide on the England flood

Courage, character, craziness. Dave Rennie’s Wallabies pulled off one of the great back-to-the-wall victories on Saturday, defeating England with 14 men and snapping Eddie Jones’s eight-game winning streak against his homeland with a brave, barnstorming victory in the first Test of the Ella-Mobbs Trophy three-match series.

Already missing their first-pick playmaker injured in the warm-up, the men in gold then lost their full-back to a season-ending injury, lost the foundation of their scrum to a head-injury assessment and lost their lineout caller to a red card – all within the first 35 minutes. The most desperate of hours loomed.

Rarely has a bench been busier. Young Noah Lolesio took the conductor’s baton and kicking boots from Quade Cooper at fly-half, the apprentice replacing the sorcerer. Jordan Petaia stepped in for Tom Banks at No 15 after the latter’s arm snapped coming down from a leap.

In the forwards veteran James Slipper came on for Allan Alaatoa who had been cruelly penalised for not rolling away while concussed. No one could replace the dismissed Darcy Swain so the Wallabies double-timed, wingers stepping in for flankers at the set-piece and backs joining mauls.

For a time Australia simply held on, leaning into the ropes and taking punches, throwing a few on the rare occasion they got the ball. With so much blood in the water, England’s big men went berserk. Dave Rennie’s men were losing the middle, bending at the edges, giving away more penalties at the maul.

Yet each time the white chargers came, the gold wall held. With limited combinations bedded down by the second-stringers in the lead-up, Australia stepped up individually with conspicuous acts of bravery. Targeted under the bomb, Lolesio passed each