England will qualify for the Gillette Four Nations final on November 14, if they can beat Australia or New Zealand over the next two weeks. However, any neutral observer of arguably the most physically intense match seen in this country could only conclude that the southern hemisphere giants are a world apart.

How England bridge the gap in pace, physicality and defensive fortitude, starting this Saturday against an Australia side stung by a stunning draw with their trans-Tasman rivals and needing to win in Wigan to sustain their own final ambitions, is anyone’s guess.

Tony Smith, the England coach, kept his thoughts to himself at the Twickenham Stoop after witnessing a highly skilled and brutally charged encounter that made any comparisons with England’s laboured victory in the tournament’s opener against France 24 hours earlier laughable.

The sport’s superpowers went toe to toe in an immense encounter on Saturday night, transferring their passionate rivalry 12,000 miles to an Antipodean colonised corner of West London that reverberated to a collision unparalleled in terms of the shuddering intensity generated by both teams. On the evening before the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers invaded Wembley, the jackhammer hits came minus NFL-style padding. Stick Fuifui Moimoi in a helmet and you can scarcely imagine what havoc the New Zealand prop might wreak.

The Kiwis were within a minute of repeating last year’s World Cup final defeat of the Kangaroos, before a short kick-off and a penalty for holding down — a particular New Zealand bugbear — allowed Greg Inglis to engineer a try for Cameron Smith that Johnathan Thurston nonchalantly converted. Draws are comparable, Australians often say, to “kissing your sister”; this one was met with undisguised relief.

The Kiwis have had a reputation for flakiness but not under Stephen Kearney, their phlegmatic coach, who as one of the great New Zealand forwards appreciated the ferocious tackling stints of Adam Blair, Frank-Paul Nuuausala and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, who has spent much of the season in Manly Sea Eagles’ under-20 side but was a tour de force up front.

Time and again the black door slammed shut on the green and gold hordes — for a 20-minute spell in the first half and another when Australia failed to find the decisive try when 14-6 up — as a young New Zealand side pushed the sometimes overly cautious Kangaroos to the limit.

After Thurston and Brett Morris touched down, New Zealand followed up Nuuausala’s early effort with scores by Junior Sa’u, Lance Hohaia and Frank Pritchard between the 56th and 76th minutes. Had Luke Isaac and Bryson Goodwin succeeded with two of the conversions, there would have been no way back for Australia, whose persistence rescued a point.

“At one stage, it was a point lost from our point of view. At the end, it was really a point gained,” Tim Sheens, the Australia coach, said.

Having seen New Zealand’s youngsters rise to the task, the benchmark has been set for England’s tyros to perform. The temptation for Smith must be to play all three young half backs, Richard Myler, 19, and Sam Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond, both 20, in an effort to somehow unsettle Australia as effectively as the Kiwis contrived to do for all but the last few seconds of a game that few would be disappointed were it to be repeated in the final at Elland Road.

Sheens appeared surprised at the appointment of Steve Ganson, the English referee, for Saturday’s match, despite it being made several weeks ago. “Hopefully we’ll understand him a little better next week,” he said.

Scorers: Australia: Tries: Morris, Thurston, Smith. Goals: Thurston 4. New Zealand: Tries: Nuuausala, Sa’u, Hohaia, Pritchard. Goals: Goodwin 2.

Australia: B Slater; B Morris, G Inglis, J Hodges, J Hayne; D Lockyer, J Thurston; B Hannant, C Smith, P Civoniceva, T Waterhouse, R Hoffman, A Watmough. Interchange: B White, S Thaiday, P Gallen, K Gidley.

New Zealand: L Hohaia; S Perrett, S Matai, J Sa’u, B Goodwin; B Marshall, N Fien; F-P Nuuausala, T Leuluai, F Moimoi, B Harrison, F Pritchard, A Blair. Interchange: J Lima, I Luke, I Soliola, J Waerea-Hargreaves.

Referee: S Ganson (England).