Australia v England A -Result

World champions Australia were given a major fright by youthful England A, before making a winning start to their Kangaroo tour with a 26-22 success at Brentford.

The Aussies looked to have seized control of their opening match when they led 26-6 after 47 minutes but the Super League youngsters stunned them with three tries in the last 30 minutes.

The tourists hung on for victory but the result will give Great Britain real hope of ending their 30-year bid for the Ashes in next month's Think! Road Safety Series.

The tourists enjoyed the majority of the play in the first half but looked decidedly rusty and fluffed three clear-cut tryscoring chances through poor handling.

Scrum-half Brett Kimmorley set up the game's first try when he slipped the attempted tackle of Chris Thorman on 14 minutes.

The supporting Darren Lockyer slipped as he tried to wrong-foot full-back Shaun Briscoe, but managed to regain his feet in time to send hooker Danny Buderus over the line.

England drew level four minutes later when Ade Gardner swooped on Lockyer's dropped pass and ran 80 metres to score. Thorman kicked the conversion.

But England had all sorts of problems coping with the clever tactical kicking of Kimmorley. Wingmen Matt Sing and Luke Lewis both dropped the ball in tryscoring positions and Lockyer lost the ball with the line beckoning after re-gathering another of Kimmorley's shrewd punts.

It was no surprise when Australia went back in front on 28 minutes, Sing outjumping Gardner to collect Kimmorley's high kick to the corner to touch down, and the outstanding Kimmorley then had a try disallowed for a knock-on by the video referee.

England were far from overawed and they were offered due respect by the visitors when Craig Fitzgibbon went for goal with an injury-time penalty, which added to his two earlier conversions.

Robbie Kearns extended his side's lead when he forced his way over just two minutes into the second half.

When another substitute, Michael Crocker, finished off a sparkling handling move in which Trent Waterhouse and Buderus produced miraculous offloads, and Fitzgibbon kicked his fifth goal, there seemed no way back for the home side.

However, tries by left centre Martin Aspinwall, Martin Gleeson and prop Andy Lynch, and Thorman's third goal, closed the gap to just four points and the Australian defenders had to work overtime as England went for the kill.

Both sides ended the match a man short after Gower and Danny Sculthorpe were sin-binned after coming to blows.