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MARSEILLES - Australia coach John Connolly said he was at a complete loss to explain his team's flat performance in their 12-10 World Cup quarter-final loss to England on Saturday.
The Wallabies went into the match as heavy favourites after racing through their pool games, only to produce one of their worst performances in years to bow out of the tournament.
It was no real surprise that the Australians struggled to contain England's giant forward pack in the set-pieces but the Wallabies were surprisingly outplayed in the loose and also made a series of uncharacteristic errors, which Connolly attributed to nerves and panic.
"It was our worst performance of the tournament for sure. Our scrum got into strife and England controlled the breakdown well and took the momentum away from us," Connolly told a news conference.
"We lost a bit of composure at times, we were flustered and we made uncharacteristic errors.
"England have a world-class scrum and the best thing you can say is that we hung in. But we were also comfortably beaten at the breakdown and that was the most disappointing thing."
Australia were also beaten by England in the 2003 World Cup final and skipper Stirling Mortlock, who missed a long-range penalty at the death that might have won his team the game, said it was another bitter pill to swallow.
"We're all bitterly disappointed with the way we played today but you have to give credit to England," Mortlock said.
"Bowing out in the quarter-final of the World Cup is disappointing no matter who you play, but obviously the history we have with England adds something extra."
Few people had given England any hope of beating the Wallabies after they were thrashed 36-0 by South Africa in the pool stages but Connolly said he was not surprised by their sudden improvement.
"I said before the tournament that with their scrum and lineout and Wilkinson, they always had a massive performance in them," Connolly said.
"There's not much between the top tier countries in the world at all, on any given day anyone can beat anyone.
"Our pool wasn't the hardest and that may have had an effect because we made unusual mistakes, we were flustered at times.
"In a big game things ebb and flow, we didn't string any constructive play together for a long time. Hopefully a lot of the younger players will learn from this."
- REUTERS
