Andy Robinson rues missed chances

'We should have closed the game down'

England coach Andy Robinson believes England Australia off the hook at Twickenham on Saturday, and failed to close out the game after snatching the lead in the 66th minute of play.

England clawed their way back from 15-0 down to lead 19-15 in the second half with tries from Lewis Moody, Josh Lewsey and Mark Cueto.

But, with the Wallabies on the ropes, England lost their discipline and gave away two late penalties which Matt Giteau landed to snatch a 21-19 victory for the Aussies.

"I think we should have closed the game down at 19-15 and it is a big lesson for us to learn," said Robinson.

"At 19-15 up we had them on the rack and maybe we stopped playing a bit," he told Sky Sports.

"You cannot afford to give sides like Australia a sniff and that's what we did. We gave away two penalties and they kicked them."

Had Charlie Hodgson kicked two straightforward penalties and Andy Gomarsall landed an even easier conversion attempt, England would have won with six points to spare.

But Robinson refused to point the finger of blame at Hodgson, insisting the fly-half had enjoyed three good performances against Canada, South Africa and Australia, and preferring to focus on the many errors made by the side as a whole, particularly during the first half.

"Charlie kicked them last week and missed them this week but it's very easy to blame the goal-kicker and we've got to look at our performance as a whole, at the penalties that we've given away.

"Charlie is as honest as they come and he will put his hand up [over the missed kicks] but I think he should be very proud of what he has done over the last three games," he said.

"I thought we played tremendously well in the second half. We scored tries and got the confidence going so it's frustrating to have lost but there are lessons to be learned and we have no divine right to win rugby matches.

"We didn't get any points in the first half. We had a couple of chances but we missed them. We were perhaps trying to force things a bit and you can't afford to give as much ball away as we did."

England skipper Jason Robinson admitted England's first-half flop cost them victory.

The hosts were guilty of too many basic mistakes and of failing to take their chances as Australia built up a 12-0 half-time lead with tries from hooker Jeremy Paul and full-back Chris Latham.

"In the first half we really did let ourselves down," said the skipper.

"We made too many mistakes and Australia punished us.

"We were 12-0 down at half-time and left ourselves with a mountain to climb. We had a game plan but we just didn't stick to it.

"In the second half we threw everything at them and got our noses in front. Our kicking had been disappointing so we backed ourselves to score tries.

"We kicked the ball into the corner and came up trumps twice. We should have shut the game down but it's easier said than done against Australia.

"Our hunger and determination got us in front but then we got punished for our mistakes."

Winger Lewsey, who scored England's second try, said: "Obviously we are distraught to have lost, especially in the manner in which we did, but the reason England won the last World Cup was because of the mental toughness borne out of defeats like today's.

"We should have won today but we committed too many individual errors and missed too many tackles. We also lacked a bit of composure at the end. But, we've lost by two points to Australia, and considering that they thrashed us a few months ago it shows we have come a long way."

Flanker Moody, who was driven over for England's first try to spark their second-half comeback, said: "The simple things that we normally do so well just didn't click.

"The second half was impressive and I'm happy with the way we came back. We just have to work on those little things."