Lancaster: 'We let our country down'

England coach Stuart Lancaster. Photo / Getty

An "absolutely gutted" Stuart Lancaster conceded his future as England coach would come under scrutiny after the home side crashed out of their own tournament.

Seated beside a downcast captain Chris Robshaw, Lancaster said he would have to consider his position after guiding the team for a meaningless match against minnows Uruguay next week.

"Yep...obviously I've got to. We're going to have to answer some tough questions," he said shortly after Australia's emphatic 33-13 win at Twickenham.

"We feel like we've let a lot of people down, our country down...All credit to Australia, the better team won."

Ultimately, the decision might not be Lancaster's to make. But he started his audition to retain his job by suggesting the team was better than when he took over.

"We're gutted but there's a lot of good young players. More than 20 are in their first World Cup and a lot are going to go on to be great players.

"Obviously we've come up short in the past two games but we shouldn't throw away the last three and a half years."

Lancaster agreed that England lacked a killer instinct and failed to capitalize on their opportunities.

"Obviously the scoreline doesn't reflect it, but I thought the game was very even for quite some time. Then there was a crucial scrum penalty and they scored off it and we go into the half 17-3 down.

"Small margins at this level can lead to big consequences at this level.

"We created opportunities but Australia scrambled really well, snuffed anything out...any time we threatened the line, there was a turnover and David Pocock was usually involved."

Lancaster said Pocock was the best openside flanker in the world and backed Australia to go all the way.

"On that performance, yes."

He didn't believe England's early exit would affect the success of the tournament, but refused to blame the Pool of Death draw which led to the 28-25 loss to Wales last week.

"It's a tough pool. We put ourselves under pressure by losing that game last week. A small margin with big consequences."