England 35 - 18 Australia: Slick England put on a show

England produced their best Twickenham performance since the glory days of 2003 with winger Chris Ashton scoring two tries as they stormed to victory over Australia.

England had lost their previous two home games against Australia and were beaten on home soil by New Zealand a week ago.

But they delivered a performance full of effervescent, ambitious running, particularly among their backs, who are growing with confidence with every game together. Ashton scored an excellent try after 25 minutes and, with Toby Flood landing his goalkicks and James O'Connor missing his first three attempts, England led 16-6 at the break.

Ashton's second was a memorable 80-metre effort after England turned the ball over while defending their line and though Kurtley Beale replied with two tries for Australia, faultless goalkicking by Toby Flood, who collected 25 points, ensured there would be no third successive Twickenham victory for the Wallabies.

England had started slowly against New Zealand a week ago, finding themselves 14-0 down after the first quarter, but they were true to their promise to switch on from the start this time. Much of the pre-match talk had been about England's perceived advantage in the scrum, but it was their backs who took the game to the Wallabies.

The Twickenham crowd, starved for so long of incisive, ambitious running, could barely believe their eyes as England cut loose at every opportunity to secure a second successive win over Australia following their Sydney success in June.

England lit up Twickenham after the interval with a try that will be talked about for years to come. Defending their own line, England's Tom Palmer turned the ball over and scrum-half Ben Youngs, who was in sparkling form all day, ran the ball out from behind his own line.

Ashton collected in his own 22 and set off down the line. Drew Mitchell came to cover but the former rugby league man slammed on the brakes to wrong foot the Wallaby winger then charge in under the posts.

England have seen some highs and lows in those 14 years but Saturday's performance will rank right up with the best of the Clive Woodward era which culminated in the 2003 World Cup final victory. "The way we came out and played, everyone across the board played their hearts out," said captain Lewis Moody. "We took the chances that came, it was a great performance, everyone stepped up."

Scorers: England: Tries: Ashton 2 Cons: Flood 2 Pens: Flood 7.Australia: Tries: Beale 2 Cons: O'Connor Pens: O'Connor 2

England: Foden; Ashton, Tindall (Armitage 62), Hape, Cueto; Flood (Hodgson 78), Youngs (Care 54), Sheridan (Wilson 67), Hartley (Thompson 70), Cole, Lawes, Palmer (Shaw 71), Croft, Moody, Easter (Fourie 78).

Australia: Beale; O'Connor, Ashley-Cooper, Giteau (Barnes 59), Mitchell, Cooper, Genia (Burgess 48), Robinson (Slipper 55), Moore, Alexander, Chisholm (Mumm 57), Sharpe, Elsom, Pocock, McCalman (Brown 58).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa). Attendance: 80,002.