1. England get three winning tickets in Twickenham lottery. Never has a scoreline been so unflattering to the Wallabies. If you woke up and saw a 30-6 loss and assumed a terrible performance you are only half right. The Wallabies were competitive. They could have won the game. But young referee Ben O'Keefe did not have a happy afternoon. He made three huge calls and all went against Australia: Kurtley Beale's yellow card; a ruling that an England kick did not graze a touchline; and an obstruction against Stephen Moore as Marika Koroibete went over for a try that would have changed the match.
In my mind none of the calls were right. The one that irked the most was the Moore obstruction. The hooker ran a positive line. He was simply trying to capitalise on a brilliant Koroibete break to score the try himself, and was behind Will Genia when the No. 9 fed the short ball that Koroibete himself then gathered. Beale's yellow for a deliberate knock-on was not far behind. He was 50 metres from the try line, and Jonathan Joseph would have received the ball flat-footed. Australia, your honour, were robbed.
2. Some Wallabies lost their heads.
We must also recognise that despite luck deserting them, some of the Wallabies' individuals added to their woes with too many errors. Kurtley Beale started brightly but was among the main culprits. Clearly, the yellow card had an effect on him. Bernard Foley is also looking for his best form. He missed one simple penalty goal and had an erratic afternoon in an up-and-down year.
Rob Simmons also struggled to impose himself when the Wallabies needed him to step up. Rival Joe Launchbury won man of the match, although Courtney Lawes looked to be the dominant force. The Wallabies' handling also let them down in tough conditions, with Tevita Kuridrani guilty of one particularly costly error just as England looked vulnerable. A few will look back at the game with little fondness, regardless of the officiating.
3. Eddie Jones will not be doing cartwheels.
The England coach is a smart man. He'll relish the 5-0 lead he has built up over the Wallabies over the past two years but when he looks at that performance he will see that England are no further ahead of Australia as they were last year. In fact they are closer. This was a Wallabies side without some of its best players, at the end of a long season. At times, England looked pedestrian.
They face a hard call on hooker and captain Dylan Hartley. Mako Vunipola only stayed on the field because of O'Keefe's patience - the loosehead barely set one legal scrum all afternoon. Some of Jones' stars also made brainless decisions, with the ball and without it. Predictably, their classy bench added a late flourish and No. 10 George Ford showed some nice touches but the weakened Wallabies were not overwhelmed by English brilliance or power.
4. SBW saves repeat-infringement All Blacks.
Is there another team that happily concedes penalties under pressure in the way New Zealand do? They lost two to the sin bin close on their own line against the enterprising Scots but managed to hang on. Referees are no longer afraid to go to the pocket against the All Blacks but still they persist, in part because it is effective.
Time to regroup: New Zealand's Luke Romano is tackled by Scotland's Jonny Gray. Photo: AP
On one occasion the Scots chose to set a scrum from a penalty but were then blown off the ball by the All Blacks' set-piece, allowing the visitors to escape from under their own sticks. It is the darker side to their game that also has moments of brilliance. Sonny Bill Williams set up two tries with excellent touches, a short kick and an offload. Still, the All Blacks will probably welcome the end of the year. They look like they need to regroup.
5. The game has become more equal.
It has hard to remember a time when about the top six teams in the world looked so capable of beating each other. The All Blacks are on top but not by much. In fact, for a lot of their game in Edinburgh the Scots looked more creative and better run from No. 10. In a sense the world has been turned on its head. Suddenly the Home Nations' back lines are full of ball players and the southern hemisphere has opted for power in the midfield and relies on big scrummaging. Two years out from a World Cup and I can pick no obvious winner.
Team of the Week
1. Kane Hames (New Zealand)
2. Codie Taylor (New Zealand)
3. Sekope Kepu (Australia)
4. Courtney Lawes (England)
5. Jonny Gray (Scotland)
6. John Barclay (Scotland)
7. Siya Kolisi (South Africa)
8. Sean McMahon (Australia)
9. Ben Youngs (England)
10. Finn Russell (Scotland)
11. Rieko Ioane (New Zealand)
12. Sonny Bill Williams (New Zealand)
13. Jesse Kriel (South Africa)
14. Marika Koroibete (Australia)
15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
