Rooney put his personal troubles to one side at StJakobPark to score an early opener and his first international goal for a year - paving the way for England to make it a maximum six points from their first two Euro 2012 qualifiers.
They got off to a bright start in snowy conditions at St Jakob-Park and might have opened the scoring inside a minute when Basle failed to clear Riise's right-wing cross and Jonathan Greening came close to poking home.