England number eight Nick Easter has revealed the thought of ending the season in defeat was the main motivation behind the weekend’s thrilling win over Australia.

Boss Martin Johnson’s men triumphed 21-20 in Sydney on Saturday at the same venue where the former skipper lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy seven years ago.

Easter collected the man of the match award in a barnstorming performance that saw tries from scrum-half Ben Youngs and winger Chris Ashton that saw England leading 15-13 at the break.

A Toby Flood penalty and 2003 World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson’s long range effort put the seal on the win, although they needed Aussie centre Matt Giteau to fluff his lines in the front of the posts late on to hold on.

England had been widely criticised for last week’s 27-17 defeat in the first Test, and Easter admits the thought of a repeat performance sparked the squad in to life.

“It was like a different team. We spoke after last week’s match and just wanted to put that first half performance to the back of our minds,” he said.

“We know that if you turn up like that and go 14 points down you’ve lost the Test match. Luckily we had another shot at these guys. It is always going to be tough, but we got the win and that doesn’t happen that often down here.

“We got a bit of a shock with the pace of the game last week, but we managed to adjust this time and sometimes they couldn’t live with us which is encouraging.”

“The mood in the dressing room is relief, joy and retrospectively it will sink in. The guys will be very happy to go on their holidays.

“There was a lot of anger from last week. We certainly didn’t want to finish the season stewing on a performance like last week and we haven’t.”

Easter had feared heads would roll if England had followed a mid-week 15-9 win over the Australian second string with a second Test defeat in seven days.

And he reckoned his display - and that of other individuals - shows the team is heading in the right direction.

“Personally I had to step up. I’m in a pivotal position in the team. I had to deliver along with a few other individuals which we did,” he said.

“That is the sort of character within the squad.”