England Report Card: Individual errors undermine hosts

Individual mistakes added up for England, creating a second opponent for the hosts to overcome. Owen Farrell will take the brunt of criticism after his sin-binning with time running out but Sam Burgess could just have easily seen the yellow card for his part in the same move.

The Bath fly-half's introduction galvanised England’s attack and brought them the closest they came all night to creating consistent pressure on the Australian defence. With a hand in every attacking move after joining the game, Ford provided the opening pass that led to England’s only try of the night.

Watson enjoyed a couple of moments in the opening half that could have led to something had David Pocock not been on the opposing side. His speed and strength eventually paid off mid way through the second half when he made his way for England’s try, despite Bernard Foley desperately trying to bring him down.

Brilliant hands in the middle of the park to find Watson for the try just about made up for his poor decision making that allowed Australia their second try. The Wasps lock was solid enough in the tackle throughout the rest of his night but will be left counting the cost of that second confidence-building Australian try.

Consistently penalised at the scrum for failing to drive straight, the Harlequins skipper was hauled off after 50 minutes, shortly after receiving his final warning from referee Romain Poite.

"The last 20 minutes Australia dominated and deserved to win.

"There are some fantastic young players in that England team. There's 24 players playing their first World Cup and it's going to hurt so badly.

"It's going to be a good team and I want the country to stay behind the team because they are good lads."

"Obviously it's not up to me [whether I stay on as coach]".