England's first Champions Trophy final appearance was a chastening affair as Australia handed them a 4-0 thrashing.

Luke Doerner and Des Abbott gave Australia an early 2-0 lead before Jason Wilson added a controversial third despite England protests.

After heavy rain led to an extended half-time, Jamie Dwyer added a fourth as the Kookaburras dominated the game.

It is the first time a British team has won a Champions Trophy medal since Great Britain were runners-up in 1985.

And the drive to the final, coming on the back of last year's victory in the European Championships and their fourth-place finish in the World Cup earlier this year, is proof of their continued improvement in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics in London.

Governing body England Hockey says it is "the greatest performance since winning Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988" and they climb from sixth to fourth in the world rankings as a result of their showing in Germany.

606: DEBATE Brilliant performance to get to the final, and it looks like the tournament has been a good advert for fast flowing, exciting hockey linusandco

The result is another indicator that English hockey is on the rise, after England's women won the first Champions Trophy medal in their history, beating Germany 2-1 to clinch bronze in Nottingham in June.

England made a poor start to the tournament in Germany but recovered well and assistant coach Bobby Crutchley said they would take plenty of positives from their campaign.

"It's been pleasing to come here with some inexperienced players who have played very well," he said.

But Crutchley admitted they had been caught cold by the ruthless world champions on Sunday.

"We started slowly and if you start slowly against Australia they punish you," he said.

"They're the best team around. Even then we did cause them some trouble towards the end of the first half.

"It's our first ever medal in the Champions Trophy and we'll just have to go one better next time!"

In their final round-robin game, against New Zealand, England scored in the first minute and Richard Mantell came close to giving them a similarly perfect start against the Kookaburras in Monchengladbach.

But goalkeeper Nathan Burgers did well to block his close-range effort, and within minutes Australia had made England pay.

Doerner buried the ball in the back of the net to the right of keeper James Fair, and within a minute it was 2-0 to the champions.

Turner worked his way up the right wing and along the goal-line, before laying it off to Abbott to lash the ball home.

England's plight grew worse when they conceded their third goal in less than quarter of an hour.

Wilson thumped the ball into the roof of the net and England used up their video referral after claiming the goal-bound shot had taken a deflection off Turner.

The England players were certain the goal should not stand but the video replay was inconclusive because bodies in the way obscured the incident.

The moment the half-time whistle sounded a cloudburst saturated the pitch, despite the best efforts of the groundstaff, who worked away in the heavy rain trying to brush off the water.

Play finally restarted after a half-time interval that lasted nearly an hour but the balance of the game was unaffected, with Australia continuing to dominate.

Wilson and Abbot both missed a threatening cross two minutes into the second half and Abbott then failed to convert a high ball soon after.

The champions finally added a fourth goal when a defensive mix-up gave Dwyer the space to thunder home a clinical strike.

Kirkham looked to have denied Australia a fifth as a rising flick at a penalty corner hit him in the face, although the umpire ruled the ball was going wide.

England continued to battle away and made occasional forays into the Australia D but they lacked the firepower to trouble the champions.

Both sides will now travel to the Commonwealth Games, which take place in India in October.

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