Daly leads try-rush as England beat Australia

England ran in four tries to none from Australia, with the 24-point winning margin their best against the Wallabies.

But Australia had two potential tries disallowed on replay, as they suffered a first defeat in eight Tests.

The build-up to this match had seen England coach Eddie Jones accuse Australia counterpart Michael Cheika of trying to influence referee Ben O’Keeffe through media comments regarding Red Rose “bullying and English late-tackling of the Wallaby half-backs”.

But Jones, overseeing a fifth straight win as England boss against his native Australia, could have few complaints with O’Keeffe’s performance on Saturday given all the New Zealand official’s big decisions went his side’s way.

Jones was delighted after feeling England had received unfair criticism following last week’s error-strewn 21-8 win over Argentina.

“Seeing most of the commentary last week was about us going backwards at a rate of knots, not a bad win,” Jones told Sky Sports.

Jones accepted fortune had gone England’s way after his 21st victory in 22 Tests as England boss — the lone defeat on his Red Rose record coming against Ireland in Dublin in March.

“We got the bounce of the ball a few times, but we stuck at it,” admitted Jones, Australia’s coach when they lost the 2003 World Cup final to England.

Meanwhile Australia captain Michael Hooper, who along with Wallaby fullback Kurtley Beale was sin-binned, felt the final score was harsh on the Wallabies.

“It got away from us at the end, we were right in that,” he said.

Indeed England were only 6-3 ahead when left wing Daly broke the game open in the 54th minute.

Australia were on the attack through Samu Kerevi’s burst only for fellow centre Tevita Kuridrani to drop a pass.

England scrum-half Ben Youngs fly-hacked the ball down field and Daly, with the ball bouncing kindly, won the sprint.

O’Keeffe made lengthy checks to see if Youngs’s kick had gone into touch but, with replays inconclusive, he awarded a try that Owen Farrell converted to put England 13-3 ahead.

Bernard Foley reduced the deficit with a 64th-minute penalty and, with 10 minutes left, Australia thought they had a try when wing Marika Koroibete made a surging break before the ball came back to him.

Koroibete appeared to be held up over the line by England flanker Chris Robshaw but O’Keeffe eventually disallowed the try for an illegal block by Australia replacement hooker Stephen Moore.

– Flattering scoreline –

England then put the result beyond doubt eight minutes from time when centre Jonathan Joseph slid over following a well-judged kick by substitute scrum-half Danny Care.

They gave the scoreline a flattering look when both wing Jonny May and Care crossed late on.

Farrell returned after being rested from the Pumas match while lock Joe Launchbury justified his recall in place of George Kruis with a man-of-the-match display.

England took an early 3-0 lead through a Farrell penalty with fly-half Foley missing a chance to equalise.

Australia, however, nearly scored the game’s first try in the 27th minute.

Kuridrani’s grubber kick caused chaos in the England defence but Korobiete missed with a fly-hack just metres from the line.

Hooper, however, slid over with the loose ball only to have his try disallowed on review by O’Keeffe for being in front of the kicker.

Hooper’s half then got worse when, following persistent infringing, he was sent to the sin-bin for the second week in a row after seeing yellow in a 29-21 win over Wales in Cardiff.

England tried to capitalise on their man advantage by kicking a penalty for an attacking line-out close to Australia’s line.

The Wallabies held out but at the cost of an easy penalty that Farrell kicked to make it 6-0.

And on the stroke of half-time, the visitors were reduced to 13 men when fullback Beale was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.

England’s lead was cut to three points when Reece Hodge landed a 48-metre penalty early in the second half, but that was as close as Australia got.