Rugby League: Controlling influence of Goodway

Jonathan Davies watches an heroic triumph by a side going back to basics

This was a triumph for the Great Britain coach Andy Goodway and the kiss of life he gave to the team demoralised by the Australians at Wembley last weekend. They made so many mistakes in that defeat I really feared for their chances yesterday, but the transformation was tremendous and no one was more shocked than the Aussies.

Of the many British heroes, Andy Farrell was the most impressive. I felt last week that the team suffered because they were forced to play him at stand-off and missed his power at loose-forward. Andy answered that criticism by playing like a loose-forward at stand-off and was such a great influence on the game.

Paul Atcheson at full-back was another big improvement. He was brought to combat the aerial strike-power of Brett Mullins and Wendell Sailor and perform excellently, taking all the bombs they aimed at him and contributing to his team's defiant tackling stints.

It didn't take long to see the difference from Wembley. Great Britain made a stack of mistakes there but obviously spent the week gearing themselves up to get the basics right. Once they managed to do that, everything started to fall into place.

By cutting out the errors, they earned themselves more of the ball and more time to do something with it. That meant they could do so much more running with the ball and provide more options for their half-backs, Farrell and Bobbie Goulding, to show their attacking skills. We knew that this pair had more to offer and this game gave them the opportunity to do so.

It followed that if Britain had more of the ball, the Australians had less. This meant that Laurie Daley and his backs were denied the freedom they had at Wembley. It is amazing how even a slight reduction of possession and time to use it can make it harder for a player to shine.

I don't know if the comfort of their Wembley win caused Australia to expect the same shape of game at Old Trafford but they wouldn't have taken long to realise that they were up against opponents no longer prepared to surrender the ball easily.

Neither were the Great Britain forwards as obliging in the tackle as they were in the first Test. The Aussie pack found it much tougher to gain yardage and provide extra space for their backs. It all caused them so much frustration that they lost discipline.

The battle between Britain's Paul Sculthorpe and the Aussie second row Gorden Tallis was always a humdinger. Paul succeeded in riling his man so much that Tallis lost his head.

Sailor also allowed Farrell to wind him up and the Australians were well punished for their loss of temper. It was rewarding to see a British team so much in control of themselves and their game plan after our sufferings against the Aussies at club level during the summer.

Now we can look forward to the third and final Test at Leeds next weekend with much more hope. I have to be honest and say I still fancy the Australians to take the series because they have superior strength to fall back on, but Britain did so much good for the morale of our game I wouldn't put my money on anything but a cracking game.