Stuart Lancaster was left frustrated after England failed to take a series of key chances late on against Australia.
The home side could not score a single point against the Wallabies in the second-half, turning down shots at goal in favour of going for a decisive try that could have put them ahead.
"We needed to take the opportunities that we created. We felt our tempo would pay off and we didn't take advantage," said Lancaster.
"We'll look at every decision but with the momentum at the time I thought it was the right decision. You back your players on the field. The momentum was with us and I thought from there we were going to score a try.
"We're devastated to have lost. The margins were very small. Australia played a smart game with chipping the ball behind our defence and went hard at the breakdown.
"We've got areas to work on, but there are lots of positives and we showed the intention to play, but our lack of execution towards the end of phases put us under pressure."
Forwards coach Graham Rowntree echoed Lancaster's frustration, in a match where England struggled against Australia at the scrum.
"We're gutted," added Rowntree.
"Tom Waldrom was an inch away from scoring and Tom Youngs composure at key lineouts was very good. Their pack stood up with all of it's experience, but penalties killed us in the second half."
Comments
heart_of_oak says...
Kybone, you're right again. To start Burns and Twelvetrees against the Boks really would be a baptism of fire. You're also right about Steffon Armitage and about France based players. This rule of not selecting them is just plain daft and smacks of all the anti-European sentiment and little Englander mentality that is so so dated and negative. There has got to be a way to select great English players, no matter where they ply their trade.
Consider this. We all rate the French right now. They hammered Australia (though I still think that was a one off), they've a great competition with some of the world's best players and Armitage is considered one of the best players in their league. How good must that make him ? We're denying a great player the chance to represent his country, denying the English public the chance of seeing what he can do, depriving ourselves of the best players available to us, and it's ostensibly because he can't make training sessions. There has to be a way around this. A rugby player's career doesn't last much beyond the age of 35 and often a lot less than that. So I don't blame any player who wants to maximise his earnings while he's marketable.
Posted 08:53 20th November 2012
kybone says...
heart_of_oak- Agreed. Im not sure the SA game is the right time, but i certainly think Twelvetrees at 12 and Burns at 10 is a must. I also want Morgan back at 8. We also need to try and come up with a way to get Stef Armitage into the England squad.
Posted 18:47 19th November 2012
heart_of_oak says...
kybone, you're right and though it pains me to say it, so is Georgesmith. In fact, he (Georgesmith) could have said more... e.g. the number of great players Australia had out through injury such as Genia and Pocock.
But in a strange way, I think this could be good for us in the long run.
1. I hope that any complacency there might have been is well and truly obliterated from any England player's thinking.
2. we need to be much more ruthless. When kicks are available, we take them.
3. selection - we need players with more imagination. Kybone, as you rightly say, if plan A doesn't work, we're clueless. There is no plan B. Players I'd like to see getting a chance include Burns and Twelvetrees. We desperately need Courtney Lawes back in my view but I recognise others don't rate him as highly as I do. The Waldrom experiment has now I feel run its course and we need to bring on Morgan.
That'll do for now.
Finally a word to the Ozzies out there. A magnificent effort from your team - well done, you deserved to win. You came into this game with a team missing several key players and having been hammered by France. There's all manner of crap going on in the Ozzy Rugby camp at the moment with players criticising the coach and the coach himself under fire. England on the other hand were playing at home, boyant after a big win against Fiji, missing one or two players but nowhere near as badly hit as your team.
And yet you beat us. A very brave effort under the circumstances and well done.
Posted 17:34 19th November 2012
rugbyjarhead says...
wow george you got to tone it down a little bit mate. its only a game at the end of the day.
Posted 09:26 19th November 2012
georgesmith says...
The English should be really embarrassed. They couldn't beat a Wallabies side that had brief-case players D. Dennis and grandpa N.Sharpe in the starting line-up. How pathetic is that. It's like Wallabies were playing with 13 players only and still they won. Plus they also had a clown as their coach so.... real bad for the English.
Posted 01:49 19th November 2012
kybone says...
flyman-I agree, we looked like a side that went in to the game thinking that we'd win- not because we were too good , but because australia just weren't capable. We got caught standing on our heels.
I hope im not being too critical, but im starting to get the feeling that the England game plane is simply to dominate physically and force their way over the line, and when this doesn't happen they don't have any other ideas. A bit like SA really. I mean look at it, our best performance of this year was against Ireland where we scrummed our way to the majority of our points, and our best attacking weapon is a 'crash-ball' centre.
Posted 10:32 18th November 2012
flyman says...
Cry me a river!!!! More like they thought it would be a walk in the park....
Posted 05:13 18th November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
The England Backs were way too flat against Fiji. A fired up Oz just shut us down with ease. If we don't sort our alignment out against The boks then they'll be a few players going off on stretchers. Sort it out Mike Catt.
Posted 23:34 17th November 2012