There are occasional moments in sport when the earth seems to stop turning and the combatants seem frozen in mid-air, forever framed in the mind's eye and through the luckier photographers' lenses. Twickenham on Saturday provided another such example and, even by the dramatic standards of past England-Australia games, a finale to stand the test of time.
They may well be replaying Dan Luger's 88th-minute try at the turn of the next century and, perhaps, citing this as the weekend the rugby world tilted perceptibly back from south to north. To get too carried away, though, would be to ignore the hairline nature of the outcome and to forget that, on days when the planets are less sympathetically aligned, England might need to start scoring tries earlier than they did here.
Even those of us who had predicted the law of Sod might just intervene in the form of a South African referee handing England victory with the aid of a video replay could not have foreseen how this slow-burning contest would end, even when the pale-faced English replacement Iain Balshaw sped down the narrow side with his side trailing 19-15 to opponents reduced to 13 by the sin-binning of Chris Latham and Matt Cockbain.
Had the brave, immensely effective Latham still been on the field, Balshaw's kick ahead would not have found the space it did, but the right-hand corner of the in-goal area was suddenly an empty paddock crying out to be grazed. The Wallaby scrumhalf, Sam Cordingley, came tearing across but, while the bouncing ball veered away from Balshaw, Luger was able to gather it with his left arm and bring sufficient downward pressure to bear.
Or had he? The Welsh touchjudge Clayton Thomas was on the spot and indicated a try, but for the referee, Andre Watson, it was hardly an elementary decision with Twickenham's first union video official, Ireland's Brian Stirling, hovering over his remote control. By the time Stirling returned his verdict two minutes later, those who had leapt exultant from armchairs were hiding behind them.
Latham's sin-binning, for a high tackle on Mike Tindall, and Cockbain's late departure, allied to David Giffin's temporary expulsion for a left hook to Danny Grewcock's nose, cost the Australians dear, but Woodward felt any sympathy towards the visitors should be balanced against the time-wasting tactics he believed Rod Macqueen's men had resorted to late on.
However, a draw would have been by no means unfair. England had twice as much possession and a similar territorial advantage, but the more telling jabs and cleaner work were often done by the Wallabies, notably the wonderfully-sharp break and pass by Joe Roff which presented Matt Burke with his 21st international try and almost decided the game.
The suicidally courageous Matt Perry, for one, deserved the lastgasp reprieve, but Austin Healey's unexpected brace of glaring missed tackles and Phil Greening's lack of precision helped Australia claw their way back after a first-quarter roasting.
Even in the crucial final moments, England were profligate. Balshaw broke clear from midfield but kicked ahead too far and, after Latham had been sin-binned, two close-range lineouts went unrewarded, the second horribly so when Greening's throw missed everyone.
Mike Catt cut inside with Balshaw outside him and then Wilkinson, with what looked a final gesture, sent up a towering diagonal punt which Burke gathered superbly in the same fateful corner. The Wallaby man was dazed in the process, though, and Latham was also unavailable for clearance duties. Roff missed touch, the subsequent England drive saw Cockbain dismissed and Balshaw and Luger duly seized their opportunity to gatecrash Twickenham legend.
ENGLAND: Perry (Bath); Healey (Leicester), Tindall (Bath), Catt (Bath), Luger (Saracens); Wilkinson (Newcastle), Bracken (Saracens); Leonard (Harlequins), Greening (Sale), Vickery [R O] (Gloucester), Johnson (Leicester, capt), Grewcock (Saracens), Hill (Saracens), Back (Leicester), Dallaglio (Wasps). Replacements: Balshaw (Bath) for Healey (55 mins), Dawson (Northampton) for Bracken (61 mins), Regan (Bath) for Greening (80 mins).
AUSTRALIA: Latham (Queensland); Burke (NSW), Herbert (Queensland), Mortlock (ACT), Roff (ACT); Kafer (ACT), Cordingley (Queensland); Young (ACT), Foley (Queensland), Dyson (Queensland), Giffin (ACT), Eales (Queensland, capt), Williams (ACT), Smith (ACT), Kefu (Queensland). Replacements: Panoho (Queensland) for Dyson (30 mins), Grey (NSW) for Kafer (40 mins), Paul (ACT) for Foley (h-t), Connors (Queensland) for Kefu (58 mins), Waugh (NSW) for Smith (76 mins), Cockbain (Queensland) for Giffen (78 mins).
Referee: A Watson (RSA)
