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ainimeng
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Apr 29 2014, 02:52 PM
Post #1
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TWICKENHAM, England -- Australia made a mockery of some grisly pre-match predictions to beat England 20-14 at Twickenham on Saturday, restoring morale and relieving the pressure on under-fire coach Robbie Deans. Unjustly behind 14-11 at halftime, the fired-up Wallabies kept England scoreless after the break and fullback Berrick Barnes slotted over three penalties to see them home a week after slumping to a feeble 33-6 loss in France. Manu Tuilagis controversial try for a below-par England in the 39th minute cancelled out Nick Cummins first international score four minutes earlier, with the sides never separated by more than three points in the first half. Barnes finished with 15 points from the boot. "We spoke about character and resolve after the France loss," Australia captain Nathan Sharpe said. "We had something to prove -- our effort was outstanding." The Australians first victory in three Cook Cup matches against England crucially keeps them ahead of their old rivals in the world rankings, ahead of the pool draw for the 2015 World Cup on Dec. 3. Suddenly, its Stuart Lancasters young side with questions to answer, with South Africa and New Zealand to come over the next two weekends. Englands decision-making will be questioned, with captain Chris Robshaw turning down three penalty kicks at goal in the second half in favour of attacking lineouts as the team finished strongly. "We are devastated to have lost the game," Lancaster said. "We were looking for the opportunity to finish off and nail the game but we didnt take them." Last weekends embarrassing defeat in Paris led to some serious soul-searching in the injury-hit Australia camp, with Deans in particular coming under fire from critics because of the teams ongoing sterility and lack of creativity out wide. Australia great David Campese was especially strident in calling for Deans head with the team having won just six of 12 matches in 2012. Its scrum -- always a source of scrutiny -- was also heavily criticized but prop Ben Alexanders return from injury led to a huge improvement in that department, winning two against the head in the first half. A crowd of 81,316 was kept quiet until the tense final quarter. "We probably didnt have the result we wanted in terms of scoring points, but what won us the game was the 20-30 minutes spent on our tryline (near the end)," Sha
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