Australia delivered another ruthless display to snuff out any hope of an England upset by the end of the first quarter in their netball Test in Bendigo on Sunday.
The Diamonds showed that their Commonwealth Games scare was long forgotten with a crushing 55-37 win over the world No.3 side.
The Australians beat England with a goal in the dying seconds of their round-robin match in Glasgow earlier this year but made their intentions clear from the opening whistle of the first Test in the regional Victorian city.
Towering shooter Caitlin Bassett slotted 13 goals from 14 attempts to fire her side to an 18-6 lead by the first break.
"It was gratifying," said coach Lisa Alexander.
"The girls were very anxious in many respects to have a crack at the English team and to come out and play with such precision and great intensity and our defensive effort was second to none."
Fresh from a four-Test Constellation Cup clean sweep against New Zealand last week, the Diamonds started the game at a blistering pace, with wing attack Madi Robinson running rings around her rivals.
England tried to go with them but the trade-off was a high error count and while they settled in the second quarter they still trailed 29-17 at halftime.
England coach Anna Mayes said the start was where they lost the game.
"You can win or lose a match in the first quarter and unfortunately they came out really hard," Mayes said.
"It was obvious that they were really match sharp after four games against New Zealand and while we prepared for that we were a little bit hesitant.
"When we stopped running with the Aussies and changed direction we were a lot better in attack and that's what we did in the second and third quarter particularly."
Goal-keeper Sharni Layton started in place of injured skipper Laura Geitz and was one of her team's best with five intercepts and eight deflections.
The visitors found their groove in the third quarter and started to close the gap thanks to some impressive shooting by Jo Harten, who finished with 23 goals from 30 attempts.
England got to within seven points only for the Diamonds to regroup and score the final five goals to push the lead back out to 12 points heading into the final term.
The second and final Test is in Canberra on Wednesday night.
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