Wynne Gray: England give Warren Gatland a good problem to have

Jonathan Joseph of England dives over to score his sides fourth try during the Old Mutual Wealth Series match between England and Australia at Twickenham Stadium. Photo / Getty Images

England are starting to match their rugby with their rhetoric.

They did it tough against the Wallabies at Twickenham today, conceding an early lead and struggling through to the interval before using the belief and skills they have grown with new coach Eddie Jones, to power to victory.

The 37-21 margin was tasty, so too the flawless goal-kicking of Owen Farrell and the contributions of halfback Ben Youngs, centre Jonathan Joseph and forwards Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood.

The Wallabies have struggled since they shocked England at last year's World Cup and this was a chance to atone for the mid-year whitewash at home when England came calling.

Patterns in the test changed however the result remained in favour of England who found ways to grind through their troubles and succeed.

That ability to regroup after a sluggish opening half set up their 14th successive victory which will have further pricked the selection attention of Lions coach Warren Gatland.

He's finalising his management and coaching group for next year's tour to New Zealand and moving towards the crunchy pieces of team selection.

There is any amount of physical talent across the Lions catchment area, on numbers alone those reservoirs suffocate the talent pools the All Black selectors look into.

But at the high end of international rugby, coaches need players with extraordinary mental resilience who can face the toughest of challenges and rarely buckle. They need men who bring the class and technical clout to every match in spite of all sorts of adversity.

England are getting there and that will be the greatest reward for Jones and will be more of a selection magnet for Gatland.

For the last decade, hot air, England and Twickenham have been unprofitably cosy as observers and a huge support base have mistaken history for progress.

Gatland and the Lions navigated those types of pitfalls as they took their show and methods on the road in 2013 to beat the Wallabies.

He switched back to the crimson of Wales and oversaw their RWC win last year against England.

Now Wales are battling, England and Ireland are resurgent and Gatland has to put aside his normal affiliations to pull the threads together for next year's tilt at the All Blacks.

It will take a huge turnaround for Sam Warburton to make an impact with Wales and then suggest he should be picked to make the Lions squad and captain it ahead of a clutch of other inform flankers. A similar story is unfolding for midfield back Jamie Roberts.

Gatland will smile ruefully at every suggestion, knowing there will be casualties, hiccups and interesting developments throughout next year's Six Nations and the tail end of the rugby season in Europe before he can put a squad on the plane.

Right now though, England are making the running and Gatland's discussions with Jones about players and plans will provide the sort of critical data needed to support the Lions tour to New Zealand.