By STEVE MASCORD
ENGLAND gave 19,500 fans enough to bellow, boo and berate about but in the end it was the same old story for a Kangaroos side that again seemed to play well within itself.
The opening minutes of the second half have been Australia’s golden period during this Ashes series but the dead rubber Third Test at Headingley it was a time to savour for England and its fans.
Yet it was a powerful indication of the world champions’ stratospheric confidence that when they they had the chance to turn their 12-8 lead into 14-8 with a penalty almost in front on the hour, they eschewed it.
Instead, a few seconds later man of the match Harry Grant picked the ball up from dummy half, spied a sizeable hole behind the ruck and launched himself through it to score.
Five minutes later, fullback Reece Walsh scored the first of his two tries when his own pass was briefly intercepted by Harry Newman. The Brisbane star regathered and cantered over.
His dummy and step were in good evidence for his second try in the shadows of fulltime. Australia 30 England 8.
Earlier, a Harry Smith penalty goal after the halftime siren cheered the big crowd and narrowed the scoreline to 12-8 in Australia’s favour.
Once more the Kangaroos stuttered in attack but seemed to have their opponents’ measure anyway early.
After some push and shove in the ruck in middle of the field, Cameron Munster floated an overhead pass to Josh Addo-Carr who galloped over, Nathan Cleary’s conversion attempt going in off left upright.
At 25 minutes, Cameron Munster grubbered into the England in-goal and with AJ Brimson off with a shoulder injury, Mikey Lewis failed to put his body on the line to clean it up.
Lindsay Collins was hovering and posted Australia’s second touchdown.
Eight minutes before the break came England’s best moment of the series, hooker Jez Litten screaming into the clear, bouncing over tackles and throwing a delicious dummy to dispatch Reece Walsh.
He then kicked for captain George Williams to score. From then until the 60th minute, it was a ferocious Test which England were in up to their eyeballs.
