England 20-13 Australia: Farrell Inspires Second-Half Comeback

England (6) 20

Try: Robshaw, Farrell

Pens: Farrell 2

Conversions: Farrell 2

Australia (13) 13

Try: Toomua

Pens: Cooper 2

Conversions: Cooper

Owen Farrell went from villain to hero to inspire England to an ideal start to the QBE international series with victory over Australia at Twickenham.

Amid three first-half missed penalties from Farrell, Matt Toomua's try had the visitors ahead at the break despite England's dominance at the scrum.

But after the interval Chris Robshaw capitalised on Will Genia's mistake to level before Farrell picked his way through two Australian missed tackles to set England on their way this autumn.

Following a win which capped a fine display in the second 40 minutes, Stuart Lancaster's side have proved the nightmare against Wales in the Six Nations is well behind them as they tempered the Wallaby's recent improvement.

Lancaster's side now face Argentina and New Zealand in the next two weeks as they look to secure three successive wins ahead of next year's Six Nations.

Despite the summer's whitewash series victory over Argentina, Lancaster's side were still to prove they had banished the memories of their harrowing defeat to Wales in March which saw them relinquish the Six Nations championship at the Millennium Stadium

Less than two years out from a World Cup on home soil, Lancaster had demanded England up their intensity in the autumn's three QBE internationals, the first of which against Australia would mark a decade since the famous World Cup final between the two nations in 2003; won by Jonny Wilkinson's extra-time drop goal.

Having retained a settled side for much of their 20 months in charge, Lancaster handed a debut to Saracens' Joel Tomkins in absence of the injured Manu Tuilagi while Marland Yarde won just his second cap on the wing and Billy Vunipola was selected at flanker.

Australia were in contrast coming into the first of a five-match grand slam tour in disarray having lost to the British and Irish Lions and been crushed by New Zealand and South Africa in the Rugby Championship.

However, a credible performance in defeat to the All Blacks had preceded an emphatic victory over Argentina to give coach Ewen McKenzie hope his abrasive side, which included formidable trio Will Genia, Quade Cooper and Israel Folau, could repeat their 20-14 victory from 12 months ago.

England took just four minutes to get the scoreboard moving when Farrell capitalised on Australia's failure to release with an easy penalty, before Cooper levelled the scores with a similarly easy kick.

The Saracens 10 had two chances to put England in front again but skewed mid-range penalties wide to frustrate a bumper home crowd and provide the visitors encouragement following a start which included early dominance from the hosts' pack.

While Australia were succeeding in spoiling England's line-out, a pack which gave away an average of 3kg per man was toiling and another penalty awarded by referee George Clancy ended in Farrell hitting the post before eventually calming the nerves to help his side regain the lead.

But England were eventually punished for having not converted earlier opportunities when Australia took the lead just shy of the break when Genia found quick ball from a scrum and set Folau away and when the ball came back Toomua drove through Billy Twelvetrees for the opening try.

The move worked to emphasise the underlining threat Australia possessed and after Cooper stretched the lead to seven before the break, McKenzie's side had a lead which reflected their penetration if not the balance of the opening 40 minutes.

Six minutes into the second half and Yarde was fortunate not to be sent to the bin for a shoulder charge and the positives didn't stop there for England when Cooper missed the resulting penalty.

The London Irish wing almost used his second life to deadly affect as he stormed away only to be dumped out of play by Adam Ashley-Cooper. But from the resulting line-out England drew level as Genia's kick was charged down by Tom Wood and captain Robshaw reacted first to dive over.

And having regained parity England wasted little time hitting the front as Farrell exposed a lacklustre Australian defence to go over under the posts after Mike Brown's early break.

Cooper could have cut the defect but missed with a penalty from 30 meters in a rare Australian second half opportunity but Lancaster's men saw out the victory.

England: 15. Mike Brown, 14. Chris Ashton, 13. Joel Tomkins, 12. Billy Twelvetrees, 11. Marlon Yarde, 10. Owen Farrell, 9. Lee Dickson; 8. Billy Vunipola, 7. Chris Robshaw (captain), 6. Tom Wood, 5. Courtney Lawes, 4. Joe Launchbury, 3. Dan Cole, 2. Tom Youngs, 1. Maku Vunipola.

Replacements: 16. Dylan Hartley, 17. Joe Marler, 18: David Wilson, 19. Dave Attwood, 20. Ben Morgan, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. Toby Flood, 23. Ben Foden

Australia: 15. Israel Folau, 14. Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 12. Matt Toomua, 11. Nick Cummins, 10. Quade Cooper, 9. Will Genia, 8. Ben Mowen, 7. Michael Hooper, 6. Scott Fardy, 5. James Horwill, 4. Sitaleki Timani, 3. Ben Alexander, 2. Stephen Moore, 1. James Slipper

Replacements: 16. Saia Fainga'a, 17. Benn Robinson, 18. Sekope Kepu, 19. Kane Douglas, 20. Ben McCalman, 21. Nic White, 22. Christian Leali'ifano, 23. Bernard Foley