Australia passed up opportunities to kick for goal as they attempted to breach a stubborn England defence in Melbourne.
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Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday will propel the Grand Slam champions to second in the world rankings and complete the flawless start to Eddie Jones’ reign as head coach.
Prior to the match England had made no secret of their desire to strike hard in the opening 20 minutes and duly took the lead with a rolling maul try finished by Dylan Hartley and converted by Farrell.
As time lapsed, the dream looked increasingly possible and was cemented after Farrell added a try to his kicking tally, set on his way maturely by Courtney Lawes, who waited patiently to tee up the ball when tackled, and then Jamie George, who stabbed the ball down the middle.
England have overcome Australia 23-7 in the second Test to clinch the series victory, their first ever on Australian soil.
A bad-tempered clash repeatedly erupted into brawls.
It was proof the Wallabies weren’t afraid to give England a taste of their own niggling tactics, while TV cameras also caught Michael Hooper throwing churned-up dirt in the face of England’s James Haskell during a scrum.
Fears about the pitch were justified as each scrum left a mini crater with ground staff scurrying on to fill the holes with sand.
Kerevi made his worldwide debut in the 39-28 first Test loss at Suncorp Stadium and his combination with childhood mate Kuridrani looked the goods – until winger Rob Horne’s first-half concussion forced Cheika into a midfield reshuffle, sending the pair off into different channels and disrupting what had been a promising start from Australia.
Referee Craig Joubert overturned a penalty initially awarded to Australia in kickable range following a schmozzle, with tempers flaring after Chris Robshaw had been guilty of a neck roll but Moore was the man punished for his reaction.
In both games they played very smart and played in the right areas.
“Well we play for our people and the jersey”, Wallabies captain Stephen Moore said of the third Test. We are in a good place’.
Twenty-one phases of attack from the Wallabies followed before some desperate defending and a knock-on ended their assault. The power of a strong national team is that it encourages kids to play rugby and we want these guys to be heroes for English rugby.
Australia will be out to avoid a whitewash when the two sides meet in Sydney this Saturday.
But England went into the break 10-7 ahead, confident and comfortable with where they had the Wallabies.
England’s defence had been outstanding but the highlight was possibly Maro Itoje stopping Toby Smith as Australia sought to exploit a three-man overlap. An easy three points were declined as the Wallabies went for the line-out once more and it proved a poor call when play broke down.
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He said they were not satisfied with last weekend’s performance and they know the job is not done.
