England - 32 Australia - 31 Heaven forbid they ever suffer a boring home defeat, for England's supporters are presently being spoon-fed caviar for breakfast, lunch and tea.
Within the England dressing room, though, a 17th successive win on their own turf and a record third success in a row over Australia are not the statistics that matter most.
When an England team concede an unprecedented 31 points at home and trail by 12 points approaching the final quarter only to gallop home regardless, it is not only proof of ability under pressure but significant guts as well.
In that sense this was a more satisfying achievement even than the New Zealand triumph seven days earlier; either way, this autumn series threatens to blow the poor old Six Nations out of the water.
Of more relevance to Clive Woodward, though, is that his men have mastered the knack of winning close games against the world's best while hinting strongly that they are capable of even more.
No one would dispute that much of England's kicking from hand was ordinary, or that seven tries conceded in two home games is too many, yet the management's post-match delight was justified.
"We'll look back at that as a big win because we got ourselves into a corner and managed, coolly and calmly, to get our way out of it," said an elated Woodward. "It's a big scalp to take. The back line wasn't spot on but the ambition was there and that's the biggest thing from a coaching point of view."
It is clearly the head coach's belief, and he is not alone, that in Jonny Wilkinson, Ben Cohen, Jason Robinson and James Simpson-Daniel he has players capable of carving out opportunities against any side in the world, particularly when they are allied to a pack with such a consistently steely edge that they have now engineered seven successive wins over the three southern hemisphere giants. Lewis Moody and Richard Hill were again superb, Matt Dawson enjoyed himself accordingly and even Woodward's assistant Phil Larder was prepared to gloss over the points-against column and hail England's ambitious approach.
"It does cause concern but I'd prefer to concede seven tries and win both games rather than concede none and lose twice. You've got to respect the fact we're playing high-risk football."
That all five of the game's leading tacklers were wearing gold jerseys simply highlights England's fast-forward attitude, with the glaring exception, as Woodward put it, of a "mad 10 minutes" either side of the interval when Australia scored 22 unanswered points including two soft tries.
If Wendell Sailor's first union Test try was the result of slick passing, Elton Flatley's first owed much to Wilkinson slipping as he went to change direction, and the third came when the ball squirted sideways out of a ruck and Flatley, who played virtually the entire game at outhalf with Stephen Larkham at fullback, sprinted 80 metres past Robinson.
In response, Martin Johnson gathered his men behind the posts and asked them to dig deep and "show what great teams are made of". It struck a chord and, Wilkinson having slotted three penalties, Cohen burst on to a clever Simpson-Daniel pass for the second time in the match to nudge England back in front with 12 minutes of normal time left.
Cohen, with 18 tries in 20 Tests, will soon be a marked man but the Wallabies might still have wrested back the Cook Cup had Matt Burke, off target with three kicks out of nine, not missed by a hair's breadth with a 76th-minute penalty.
Sailor's integration into union needs to accelerate fast and the referee Paul Honiss might easily have sent a couple of visiting players to the sin-bin after issuing more barked last orders than a London publican.
The Wallaby coach Eddie Jones touched down in Italy yesterday with a fast-shrinking squad, five having had their tour ended by injury. Mat Rogers flew home last night and will be joined by Larkham, who has broken two bones in his hand, and Jeremy Paul, who has rib cartilage trouble.
England, in contrast, can look ahead to the visit of South Africa this Saturday without major alarms; Hill needed four more stitches to his much scarred face but the greater damage was to Lawrence Dallaglio's self-esteem.
In the nine minutes their former captain was on the field as a blood replacement, his side leaked 15 points, hardly the way to celebrate his 50th cap.
England, though, have a new colossus. If Wilkinson, with eight kicks out of eight, can maintain his own staggeringly high standards, English fans will dine out on more great Twickenham days like this.
ENGLAND: J Robinson (Sale); J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), M Tindall (Bath; Healey, Leicester, 80), W Greenwood (Harlequins), B Cohen (Northampton); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton); J Leonard (Harlequins), S Thompson (Northampton), P Vickery (Gloucester), M Johnson (Leicester, capt), B Kay (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens).
AUSTRALIA: M Burke (NSW); W Sailor (Queensland), D Herbert (Queensland; Giteau, ACT, 73), E Flatley (Queensland), S Mortlock (ACT); S Larkham (ACT), G Gregan (ACT, capt); B Young (ACT), J Paul (ACT, Freier, 69), P Noriega (NSW; Darwin, 77), D Vickerman (ACT; Giffin, 56), J Harrison (ACT; Croft, Queensland, 70), M Cockbain (Queensland), G Smith (ACT), T Kefu (Queensland).
Attendance: 75,000.
Referee: P Honiss (New Zealand).
