Stuart Lancaster hopes England won’t blame players after crushing World Cup exit at the hands of Australia

England 13, Australia 33

ENGLAND have been unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup after they were taken apart by a brilliant Australian side.

They now have the unwanted record of becoming the first hosts to ever go out at the pool stages.

Stuart Lancaster’s men needed the performance of their lives to keep their World Cup hopes going, but at no point did that look realistic. Now questions will be asked about the coach’s future.

In truth, the real damage was done against Wales. They were injury-hit, and England will forever rue throwing away that 10-point lead.

And if they thought it had been a long week after losing to the Welsh, October will be a very long month indeed as the best teams compete in England’s own back yard to be World Champions.

While Australia will now meet Wales at Twickenham next Saturday to decide top spot in Pool A, England will head up to Manchester to play minnows Uruguay in a meaningless clash of also-rans.

Having watched Dan Biggar enjoy the finest night of his career for Wales seven days before, it was another fly-half who stole the show this time.

Bernard Foley contributed a fantastic haul of 28 points as he delivered two crucial first half tries and was 100% successful with his kicks.

The Aussies were also excellent up front and, allied to their razor-sharp backs, they will think they can win a third World Cup on this form.

They were on the front foot from the off and Israel Folau could have had two tries inside the first few minutes.

Foley and opposite number Owen Farrell swapped penalties before a moment of magic from the Australian No.10 lit up the game.

After the forwards had gone through the phases, a sharp pass from Will Genia and a clever burst of acceleration took Foley past three defenders and over for a try, which he duly converted.

He then gave the hosts a mountain to climb when he went over for his second try just before half-time, after exchanging short passes with replacement Kurtley Beale, which opened up a hole in the English defence.

As he also added the extra two points, England were staring into the abyss.

They desperately needed the first score of the second half but they couldn’t make any headway and instead it was the Australians who added more points.

Their scrum, traditionally the weak point of their game, forced the English to concede a penalty and Foley did the rest.

Trailing by 17 points, it was now or never for England and George Ford got the back line moving before Anthony Watson showed real determination to fight his way over in the corner for a try.

Uncharacteristic loose handling by Michael Cheika’s men was then seized upon by their opponents, and suddenly Farrell’s penalty had reduced the deficit to seven.

But Farrell’s dangerous tackle on Matt Giteau effectively ended England’s interest in the tournament. He was sin-binned and Foley exacted full punishment with the penalty.

The game was now up and Giteau put further gloss on the scoreline in the final moments as he exploited his side’s one-man advantage to score a celebratory third try.

STUART LANCASTER could only apologise last night after the game.

The head coach cut a sad figure after his team had been taken apart by the super-slick Wallabies.

And he admitted that he would have to think about his own position.

“I’m absolutely gutted to be going out of the World Cup,” he said. “Words can’t express how disappointed we are.

“We’ve had fantastic support from the fans and the country and we’ve let them down.

“I’ve got to consider my future. But first, we have another week to go and we have to prepare to play Uruguay. But, of course, the responsibility falls on me.”

But he insisted there must be no backlash against the players, as he still believes the majority have a bright international future.

“I spoke to the players afterwards,” he stated. “We have a lot of good young players and it’s important the country stays behind them.

“This was a first World Cup for 24 of the 31-man squad and a lot will go on to be great players.

“We mustn’t let the last couple of weeks spoil the majority of good things that we’ve done for the last three and a half years.”

Lancaster’s words were also echoed by captain Chris Robshaw, who said: “We’ll have to ask ourselves some tough questions this week.

“We’ve let our supporters and the country down. We’ve come up short.”

While the English were beginning their own inquests into how they failed so badly, Australian coach Michael Cheika was plotting his side’s route through the tournament.

Despite watching the Wallabies produce an outstanding display which makes them strong contenders to lift the World Cup on October 31, he will just be looking to build on this when they play Wales next Saturday.

“There are a lot of areas we can improve on,” Cheika said. “The commitment was very good and we will improve on that going forward.

“We really wanted it; to win and to play well. We knew there would be a lot of pain in England’s backyard.

“It is just about ourselves at the moment and trying to improve on that. We are coming up against the master coach next week (Wales’ Warren Gatland).

“But I’m not going to change what we do because we won a game.”