When Australia beat England 25 years ago at Twickenham in the first international of their tour, few saw it as the first step to a grand slam against the home unions. With Ireland, holders of their own grand slam, lying in wait in Dublin on Sunday, no one will rush to judgment on these Wallabies but they will be a much more confident side after clearing their first hurdle on Saturday.

They remain short of significant components if they are to claim a slam against Wales on November 28 but a lot can be achieved in a month. The make-up of their back row by then will be interesting and they must trust their youngsters because the experienced Stirling Mortlock has re-injured a calf muscle and will not be joining them but they have belief and composure by the bucket-full.

The statistics tell the story. In the first half, England were awarded eight penalties to Australia’s two — the visiting team had to wait until the 31st minute for their first award — in the second half, the count favoured Australia 4-3. Herein lies the disappointment for England, that they dominated the first half-hour of this Investec Challenge Series match, that they had the chance to settle into a rhythm and they did not make it tell, on the scoreboard or on the pitch.

Only once did England threaten Australia’s line, in the build-up that led to Jonny Wilkinson’s second penalty goal with no more than 27 minutes on the clock. Thereafter they created no scoring opportunity whatsoever, not least in the final moments when they forced an attacking lineout twice, gathered themselves for the traditional maul and were promptly rolled backwards.

Why they should have believed they had the strength or technique to roll the maul successfully is not clear. They spent far too much of the game setting up pods close to the breakdown that took them nowhere, rather than giving the decisions to the players behind them. After all, if in Wilkinson you have one of rugby’s great game-shapers, there are good reasons for giving him the chance to do just that as often as you can.

Perhaps it was inevitable that a XV with so many players relatively new to the international game should have been unable to keep a grip on events. But how great the contrast with Australia, who were not brimming with experience in midfield or at scrum half, but seem to drop young talent into the pool that much earlier: Will Genia and Quade Cooper can look back at their first appearance at Twickenham with pleasure and they may have found the natural successor to George Gregan in the 21-year-old Genia.

The fact remains, though, that both Australia’s tries should have been contained: when Genia nipped through a gap between Tim Payne and Louis Deacon to score close to a ruck, he was only taking the space England offered. When Adam Ashley-Cooper scored, as he did in this Cook Cup game last year, it was through poor tackling by Mark Cueto and Ugo Monye, although Ashley-Cooper, who is not exactly a giant, deserves credit for ploughing on with such power.

For all their possession, from a dominant lineout where Steve Borthwick upset Australia early to the accuracy and physical commitment of Lewis Moody at the breakdown, England created little. There was neither space nor depth for Matt Banahan or Monye to exploit, and Banahan’s physical attributes meant nothing against a no-nonsense defence; the replacements added more sparkle, most notably James Haskell and Dylan Hartley, and Martin Johnson, the team manager, will surely consider starting them against Argentina on Saturday, together with Ben Foden at full back so that Monye can return to his better position, on the wing.

Johnson was able to tick off the fault lines to be repaired. “The try that killed us, we had stolen lineout ball from them and then turned it over,” he said. “We didn’t handle slow ball particularly well, sometimes we turned it into slow ball. There were glimpses of what Shane Geraghty can do and, with his skill and potential, he will get better but in the second half, we kicked too much away.”

Johnson had acknowledged throughout last week the benefits of the increased time his coaches had with the players but, as Australia have found, there is no time like game time. They shrugged off Wilkinson’s early dropped goal and his initial penalty, turned round only four points adrift and when Matt Giteau kicked his first goal, then his second to steal the lead, seldom looked likely to concede it.

“We haven’t always shown a lot of passion or belief in recent times,” Robbie Deans, the Australia coach, said. “Here we showed a lot of courage defensively and used a bit of nous in terms of field position. England tried width, they tried the short route, they tried to turn us and we stood up to that pretty well.”

Deans makes it sound a simple game and he will have no greater supporter in that than Johnson. Now it is for England to find the simple answer.

Scorers: England: Penalty goals: Wilkinson 2 (10min, 27). Dropped goal: Wilkinson (3). Australia: Tries: Genia (21), Ashley-Cooper (71). Conversion: Giteau. Penalty goals: Giteau 2 (46, 60).

Scoring sequence (England first): 3-0, 6-0, 6-5, 9-5 (half-time), 9-8, 9-11, 9-18.

England: U Monye (Harlequins); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), D Hipkiss (Leicester; rep: A Erinle, Biarritz, 67), S Geraghty (Northampton), M Banahan (Bath); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins; rep: P Hodgson, London Irish, 63); T Payne (London Wasps), S Thompson (Brive; rep: D Hartley, Northampton, 56), D Wilson (Bath; rep: D Bell, Bath, 58), L Deacon (Leicester; rep: C Lawes, Northampton, 69), S Borthwick (Saracens), T Croft (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), J Crane (Leicester; rep: J Haskell, Stade Français, 53).

Australia: A Ashley-Cooper (Brumbies); P Hynes (Reds), D Ioane (Reds; rep: R Cross, Western Force, 67), Q Cooper (Reds), D Mitchell (Waratahs); M Giteau (Brumbies), W Genia (Reds); B Robinson (Waratahs), S Moore (Brumbies; rep: T Polota-Nau, Waratahs, 60), B Alexander (Brumbies; rep: M Dunning, Western Force, 77), J Horwill (Reds), M Chisholm (Brumbies; rep: D Mumm, Waratahs, 72), R Elsom (Waratahs, captain), G Smith (Brumbies), W Palu (Waratahs; rep: D Pocock, Western Force, 69).

Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).

Attendance: 80,020.