A last minute penalty corner conversion from Chris Ciriello sealed Australia's 2-1 win over England in the first of two hockey World Cup warm-up games at Bisham Abbey on Saturday.
The Aussie men had fallen behind to Phil Roper's 11th minute strike for England despite protestations from the Kookaburras' defence.
But Australia responded well with Wollongong's Kieran Govers firing home a trademark penalty corner just nine minutes later.
"We played ok although we're still a bit rusty; we've not had a hard international game for a while," coach Ric Charlesworth said.
"This was a good physical test and we recovered well from their goal."
The Kookaburras have the two games against England and, next week, two practice games against Argentina and Germany before the World Cup in the Netherlands.
"We're using them to put the polish on a few things."
