Pollock proves the key before England cavalry seal victory over Australia

There will be higher octane games than this one in the coming weeks but for England the primary objective has been safely ticked off. An eighth successive Test victory is in the bag and Steve Borthwick’s team have also gone one better than the corresponding fixture last year when the Wallabies took the spoils in the dying moments.

While this encounter was not nearly as thrilling, the final scoreline – shining brightly on the big screen in the gathering evening gloom – was what really counted for Borthwick and his players. Defeat to a weakened Wallaby side would have prompted some uncomfortable questions and cast a nagging shadow over the remainder of their November schedule.

And just when England fans were starting to wonder if a late Halloween horror show might yet materialise, up popped a man with a trick up his sleeve. Henry Pollock had only been on the field seven minutes when he brilliantly scooped up a tap down from the high-flying Tom Roebuck and accelerated away to score the game’s defining try from 30 metres out.

Pollock, still only 20, looks destined to score plenty more tries on this famous old stretch of grass and clearly relishes the big occasion. Ben Earl also scored a sharp first-half try with Alex Mitchell and Luke Cowan-Dickie crossing in the final quarter, but for the first hour this was not a contest to send too many home fans skipping back down to Twickenham station.

Australia finished a clear second best in most departments and the arrival of a boatload of English replacements made life even harder in the second half. Stronger opponents might just have made England sweat for longer but the sight of Lewis Moody, recently diagnosed with motor neurone disease, delivering the match ball was a reminder to all that such debates are strictly relative.

On a grey but relatively mild afternoon the initial question was whether England, having talked the talk in the buildup, could also walk the walk. And whether the pre-match muttering about the legality of some of Australia’s breakdown angles would have a significant effect on the decision-making of the Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli.

The pea in Amashukeli’s whistle certainly received a good early work-out but, ironically, it was England who were pinged first for coming in from the side. The inevitable flaw with flagging up supposed areas of concern to the match officials in advance is that the extra scrutiny works both ways.

And, in truth, the main focus of both sides’ interest in the opening 40 minutes was the aerial contest. Joseph-Aukuso Suallii can steal fruit from the higher branches of any tree and enjoyed some early joy in disrupting the home catchers. It was unexpected, then, when Roebuck rose above the remarkable Australian athlete to poach a ball which resulted in Sam Underhill sending Earl on a 40-metre sprint to the line.

At 10-0 up the onus was on Australia to find some kind of swift response. It was not proving easy and, aside from a brilliant clearance kick down the sideline from their captain Harry Wilson there was precious little to encourage them. Earl came within a whisker of scoring his second only to be held up over the line and all the snappier attacking was coming from the hosts.

It was a considerable bonus, then, when Fraser Dingwall saw his attempted wide pass to Freddie Steward intercepted by Harry Potter with another potential English scoring opportunity beckoning. Potter swooped in to claim the golden snitch and surged 75 metres downfield to complete a try that will have brought a wry smile to the face of his English-born father.

Out of nowhere it was a contest again, albeit a fairly error-strewn one. Tane Edmed, the visiting fly-half, almost committed the howler of the season with a botched goalline drop-out just before the interval but the Wallabies still survived to the break without conceding any further ground.

Lewis Moody, who revealed that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, presents the match ball to the referee. Photograph: Dan Mullan/RFU/The RFU Collection/Getty Images

The next challenge was to find a way to counter what they knew would be coming next. England had deliberately stacked their bench with a view to tightening the second-half screw while the Wallabies, without the combined talents of the unavailable Will Skelton, Len Ikitau, Tom Hooper and James O’Connor, did not have the same luxury.

The cavalry duly arrived with half an hour left and soon made their presence felt, with the massive Wallaby prop Taniela Tupou having already been whistled ashore. Pollock is not the biggest of back-rowers but he already has an uncanny knack of imposing himself on games and did so again by burning off the Wallaby full-back Andrew Kellaway.

Finally England could breath easily and the action became increasingly one sided. First Mitchell sniped around the fringes to score despite suggestions of a possible knock-on moments earlier and then, with the Wallabies pack in serious strife, Cowan-Dickie crowned his 50th Test appearance from close range. First autumn blood to England but sterner challenges await.