England replacements fire to overwhelm ragged Australia

LONDON :England turned to their "Bomb Squad" to get their Autumn campaign off to a convincing start with a dominant 25-7 victory over a tired and toothless Australia at Twickenham on Saturday and make it eight wins in a row.

Leading 10-7 in the second half, the introduction of five British and Irish Lions forward replacements helped England add tries through Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and Luke Cowan-Dickie to give the scoreboard a more accurate reflection of the game.

Flyhalf George Ford, selected to start after his impressive displays on England's tour of Argentina and the United States, said it had been a tricky afternoon.

"The first game is notoriously difficult," he said." The intercept could maybe cloud your judgement of the game. We had to regroup and calm down.

"We know that with our set-piece and the lads coming off the bench that they were going to add some impetus."

Australia always looked like they might be in for a tough afternoon as, with the match falling outside World Rugby's window, they were without several key players not released by European clubs.

SUB-OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA

Even taking that into account, however, it was a sub-optimal Australia performance, particularly in attack where they rarely threatened and scored their sole try via a long-range interception.

England failed to turn a lot of early goalline possession into points and went ahead only after 20 minutes with a Ford penalty.

A minute later it was 10-0 when Earl sprinted clear for the first try after Tom Roebuck outjumped Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.

Australia struggled to make any impact, with no sign of their trademark backline speed and invention, and only desperate defence prevented Earl claiming a second try when he was held up by Harry Potter over