England 19-21 Australia Pictures from Twickenham

"We are very disappointed," he said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game but it is all about winning at this level and we didn't.

"The first half really let us down. We came out and made too many mistakes and Australia punished us.

"We had a game plan but just didn't stick to it, and gave ourselves a mountain to climb at half-time."

Robinson admitted the injury to fly-half Charlie Hodgson, which meant England were without a recognised goalkicker with Henry Paul already off the field, had hampered his side.

It is very easy to blame your goal-kickers but we have to look at our performance as a team Coach Andy Robinson

"We couldn't go for a few kicks towards the end, and I certainly would have taken the three points the first time.

"But at the same time we backed ourselves when we kicked it to the corner and came up trumps twice.

"We threw everything at them in the second half but unfortunately we just didn't have enough at the end."

Coach Andy Robinson also lamented the catalogue of errors despite the impressive second-half turnaround.

"I thought we played tremendously well in the second half," Robinson said.

"But you can't afford to give a side like Australia as much ball with unforced errors. That cost us a really good start."

The match as it happened

Robinson was also unhappy that having got themselves into the lead at 19-15, England then conceded two penalties inside their own half to gift Australia the game.

But he insisted fly-half Charlie Hodgson was not to blame for two costly penalty misses in the first half, while replacement kicker Andy Gomarsall also missed an easy conversion.

"Charlie kicked them all last week, and he missed this week," Robinson noted. "But it is very easy to blame your goal-kickers.

"But we have to look at our performance as a team, especially with the opportunities we gave them with turnover ball.

"Charlie is an honest guy and he will put his hand up but he should be really proud of his performances over the last few weeks. Some of his passing and attacking play was brilliant."