1. Australia 17 England 20, Rugby World Cup final, Sydney, 22 November 2003
It has to be the top, even if the winning England team were a little past their peak. Martin Johnson carried his side to the final and Jonny Wilkinson, who had been one of the surprising burdens the captain had had to shoulder (at least until the semi‑final against France), won it with his right‑footed drop goal in extra-time. Freefall lay on the other side of the apogee of 2003, a descent halted only by Eddie Jones, coach of the beaten Australia in the final.
2. Australia 14 England 25, Tour match, Melbourne, 21 June 2003
Now this was the great England side of 2003 at their best. They had dug in with 13 players at one stage against New Zealand on their pre-World Cup tour of Australasia, and now they played with both control and aplomb in Melbourne. They had won the Six Nations grand slam in style and now they sent a shiver through the southern hemisphere. They were magnificent and would never be quite the same again.
3. Australia 7 England 23, Tour match, Melbourne, 18 June 2016
A tour win in Australia, another complement to a grand slam won in the Six Nations, but this one with greater resonance: this completes a first series win in Australia. England’s history of multiple-Test series in Australia is not extensive, but they come with a hostility that sets them apart. Australia are remarkably difficult to beat on home soil, and England have defeated the 2015 World Cup finalists with something to spare.
4. New Zealand 10 England 16, Tour match, Auckland, 15 September 1973
England went on tour to New Zealand in the late summer of 1973 – strange time to tour – and lost three games against Taranaki, Wellington and Canterbury. Nobody gave them any chance at all when it came to the one-off Test at Eden Park, but they won. The scrum‑half Jan Webster was inspired. Since wins in New Zealand, then as now, are very rare and precious, this unexpected little gem from a bygone age stands out.
5. France 13 England 31, Five Nations, Paris, 15 February 1992
The highlight of the grand slam of 1992. England had beaten France in Paris in the World Cup the previous autumn and this game was supercharged with hostile intent. England taunted the hosts with their rugby and mocked them cruelly in the darkness of the scrum, causing Vincent Moscato and Gregoire Lascubé to explode – not literally but sufficiently for the Irish referee Stephen Hilditch to send the hooker and prop off. Wonderfully melodramatic stuff.
