Australia pushed to limit by dogged England A defence

Australia opened the British leg of their tour with a win at Brentford last night, but only after getting a real fright from an England team consisting of players just below Test level.

A young home side played with tremendous enthusiasm and enterprise to fight back from 26-6 and take the tourists all the way in the second half.

The Leeds pair of Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire, and Chris Thorman, in his farewell performance at his home ground, showed an abundance of flair that rattled the Aussies.

"It's a dangerous game when they play it like that,'' the Australia coach, Chris Anderson, said. "It was like turning the clock back 20 years." In fact, you have to go back further for Australia to look so troubled by the pace of British half-backs.

Australia lost in New Zealand and struggled in France, so it was not entirely unexpected they looked rusty. When they took the lead, with Brett Kimmorley's break and Darren Lockyer's support play setting up Danny Buderus, it looked as if it might be business as usual for Australia, who had not lost here outside a Test since 1978.

But England hit back when Ade Gardner picked up a loose ball and went 80 yards. Although they fell behind to Matt Sing's try and a third goal from Craig Fitzgibbon, there was no sign of their self-belief faltering.

At the start of the second half Australia monopolised possession and Robbie Kearns and Mick Crocker got over. But the best aspect of an invigorating English display was that they picked themselves up to dominate the last half-hour. Throwing the ball as if with nothing to lose, they created a try for Martin Aspinwall, and Martin Gleeson touched down as he ran on to Thorman's kick.

Craig Gower and Danny Sculthorpe went to the sin-bin as Australia struggled to keep England out and Andy Lynch capitalised on excellent work by Burrow and McGuire to go over with five minutes left. A shock result looked possible but the nervous tourists held on.

"We let them back into the game and they got excited and played some good football,'' Anderson said. "We'll give ourselves a good talking to and learn from what we did wrong.''

It is a long time since Australia looked so vulnerable early on in a tour. "But they're still a very good side," Kear insisted. "And I'm not going to say anything that's going to help them."

ENGLAND A: Briscoe (Wigan); Calderwood (Leeds), Gleeson (St Helens), Aspinwall (Wigan), Gardner (St Helens); Thorman (London), Burrow (Leeds); Lynch (Castleford), Diskin (Leeds), Parker (Bradford), Tickle (Wigan), Radford (Bradford), O'Loughlin (Wigan). Substitutes used: McGuire (Leeds), Higham (St Helens), Sculthorpe (Wigan), Hock (Wigan).

AUSTRALIA: Lockyer (Brisbane); Sing (North Queensland), Hegarty (Sydney), De Vere (Brisbane), Lewis (Penrith); Gower (Penrith), Kimmorley (Cronulla); Clinton (Penrith), Buderus (Newcastle), Civoniceva (Brisbane), Simpson (Newcastle), Fitzgibbon (Sydney), Ricketson (Sydney). Substitutes used: Crocker (Sydney), Kearns (Melbourne), Waterhouse (Penrith), Mason (Canterbury).

Referee: G Black (New Zealand).