Thurston leads Kangaroos comeback in World Cup win over England Johnathan Thurston (centre) of Australia scores his side's opening try as Sam Tomkins (left) of England closes in during the rugby league World Cup Group A match between Australia and England at the Millennium Stadium Source: Getty Images Greg Inglis of Australia passes to set up his side's first try scored by Johnathan Thurston as Kevin Sinfield and Sam Tomkins of England fail to tackle Source: Getty Images AUSTRALIAN five-eighth Johnathan Thurston sparked a thrilling comeback early today to give the Kangaroos a 28-20 victory over England that has ignited the 2013 rugby league World Cup competition. Thurston, in combination with Cooper Cronk, engineered a point-a-minute scoring spree in in the critical middle stages of the game to put 22 unanswered points on the scoreboard and reverse England's early lead. The five minutes either side of halftime at Cardiff's showpiece ground, Millennium Stadium, proved to be pivotal in Australia's eventual dominance of a pumped England team after the Kangaroos started the game in a sluggish and worrying backpedalling fashion. England certainly were not the team in disarray that their last-minute changes for disciplinary reasons suggested. Instead their forward pack was initially superior to the Kangaroos and their tactics to starve Australia of possession were implemented brilliantly. Given that this first game will set up probable match-ups for the quarter-final draw - with the loser highly likely to have to confront defending World Cup champions New Zealand - Australia had a lucky escape. The Kangaroos only upped the tempo around the 25th minute after England had scored 10 points. Thurston scored the first Australian try and his dangerous attack earned him the man of the match award. Greg Bird was punishing in defence and new cap Andrew Fifita was also impactful when he came on from the bench. But it was the backline passing, including a nice post-scrum combination by Darius Boyd and Brett Morris, that got Australia back into their groove. Australia scored tries through Thurston, Bird, Billy Slater, Morris and Boyd with Thurston adding eight points with the boot. England's tries came from Ryan Hall, Leroy Cudjoe, George Burgess and Josh Charnley, the rest coming from kicker Kevin Sinfield.