Australia coach Michael Cheika praised his side for overcoming a “tsunami” of noise at Twickenham after they knocked hosts England out of the World Cup on Saturday.
England were roared on by the bulk of a crowd of more than 81,000, but they saw the national team hammered 33-13.
“Here you’ve got to keep the opposition out of the game and the crowd out of the game, it’s like a tsunami coming that noise,” said Cheika after Australia’s largest winning margin over England at Twickenham.
“We wanted to get into it and play as hard as we could. We knew it would be hard — it’s England’s backyard and the atmosphere was outrageously loud.”
Australia fly-half Bernard Foley had a superb match, scoring two of the Wallabies’ three tries in a match haul of 28 points.
“What we are asking of Bernard and Quade Cooper (Australia’s second specialist fly-half) is to take control of the game, especially in tough moments,” explained Cheika.
“Bernard was very influential in the tough moments, not just in scoring points.”
Recent Anglo-Australian encounters had seen the Wallabies bested at the scrum.
But it was a different story on Saturday as the Rugby Championship title-holders’ set-piece forced a succession of scrum penalties.
“In any big test like this, the set-piece is key,” said Wallaby captain and hooker Stephen Moore. “We knew that and prepared for that and some of the stuff went our way.”