Autumn Internationals/England 19; Australia 21: A month ago England would have settled for two wins out of three from an autumn series in which they scored 17 tries and conceded only three.
Andy Robinson's team remains an exciting work in progress and, for all the short-term recriminations floating around on Saturday, this result may even do them a favour.
It would be stretching it, though, to suggest the home generals were on masterful form on an afternoon that blended the same switchback emotions of the World Cup final with an altogether darker climax.
Playing fantasy head coach is an easy game, particularly bathed in the warm glow of hindsight, but on this occasion England had a substantial input into their own downfall.
At the heart of it was Robinson's tactical decision to haul off Henry Paul after 24 minutes, precipitating a domino effect of related issues that helped Australia sneak away with the precious swag of a first win in London for six years. England's thinking was that Will Greenwood, Paul's replacement, would bring more defensive solidity to a fretful midfield but the knock-on consequences were immense.
Quite apart from the message it sent out to Paul - any coach who loses faith in a player on the strength of a few over-ambitious early mistakes can hardly claim to be the world's greatest selector - it left England without a back-up outhalf and front-line goal-kicker should anything happen to Charlie Hodgson, a scenario certainly not lost on the Australian back row.
Sure enough, having missed a couple of relatively easy penalty attempts, Hodgson suffered a dead leg that finally forced him off the field with nine minutes left when England led 19-18. Cometh the hour, cometh the man? Not this time.
Andy Gomarsall - pressed into service as an emergency outside-half having already hooked a crucial conversion attempt - promptly clattered Matt Giteau with an unnecessary late shoulder charge and conceded the penalty that lost the game.
On such hairline calls are coaches' reputations made. Not since the then-Bath hooker Andy Long was removed by Clive Woodward at half-time on his debut against Australia in 1997 has an England player had to endure this degree of public humiliation. What happens next will be fascinating.
Either the management want players who think off the cuff, as Paul was trying to do, or they do not. If they think they will win more games by retreating into their shells as a back division, fine, but Robinson insists he wants to change that mentality. The braver decision would have been to keep Paul on to gain a fairer assessment of his worth, rather than opt for a knee-jerk return to the tried and tested.
Robinson, though, remains adamant he was right. "I didn't think I made the wrong call," he sighed, surrounded by inquisitors in the gym beneath the West Stand. "We didn't lose the game on goal-kicking, we lost the game because of the two penalties we gave away in that last period when we had to close the game down. It's a big lesson to all of us."
His captain Jason Robinson did his best to lighten the mood - "Quite a few of us could have been dragged off in that first half, but you can't replace 15 players" - but the character England showed in registering 19 unanswered points from 15-0 down was more than matched by Paul's post-match decency. "I was a bit surprised, but that's rugby. I made some errors, but I'm more disappointed for the guys after that great comeback."
When England gather for their next match, a potentially hair-raising Six Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff on February 5th, it would be nice to think Paul will be given another chance but assuming the soon-to-return Jonny Wilkinson is fit that now seems unlikely.
Jason Robinson also expects Wilkinson to resume the captaincy - "I'm sure when Jonny comes back he'll be in and we'll get behind him" - and, despite Mike Tindall's two uncomplicated second-half conversions, England could clearly do with a half-decent goal-kicker.
For all Hodgson's dead-ball jitters, though, the Sale man again proved himself a fantastic distributor and England's third try, with Josh Lewsey steaming into the line to create the overlap for Mark Cueto to score his fourth try in three Tests, was among the slickest seen on this ground in a decade.
England's two other tries, by Lewis Moody and Lewsey, had their origins in more prosaic rolling mauls, the first of them involving 11 home players, but a riveting match also owed plenty to a resourceful Wallaby team, for whom the flankers George Smith and Phil Waugh, lock Justin Harrison and creative hub Giteau were all outstanding.
Missed tackles did admittedly play a part in their first-half tries by Jeremy Paul and Chris Latham, but Giteau's pace and sleight of hand in creating the first score were worth the admission money alone.
A year on from the World Cup final, to borrow the phrase thrown at the Wallabies last week, this was indeed payback time. England are still better off than they were three weeks ago, but on Saturday they overdid the gift aid.
ENGLAND: Robinson (Sale, capt); Cueto (Sale; Cohen, Northampton, 75), Tindall (Bath), Paul (Gloucester; Greenwood, Harlequins, 25), Lewsey (Wasps); Hodgson (Sale; Ellis, Leicester, 70), Gomarsall (Gloucester); Rowntree (Leicester), Thompson (Northampton), White (Leicester), Grewcock (Bath), Borthwick (Bath), Worsley (Wasps), Moody (Leicester), Corry (Leicester).
AUSTRALIA: Latham (Queensland); Sailor (Queensland), Turinui (NSW), Giteau (ACT), Tuqiri (NSW); Flatley (Queensland; Rogers, NSW, 26), Gregan (ACT, capt); Young (ACT), Paul (ACT), Baxter (NSW), Harrison (NSW), Vickerman (NSW), Smith (ACT), Waugh (NSW), Lyons (NSW; Hoiles, NSW, 77).
Referee: P Honiss (New Zealand).
