"All night they had failed to play despite getting on top in the scrum and enjoying quality lineout possession and in the end two things cost them: the centre combination of Brad Barritt and Sam Burgess, which did not work in defence or attack and the way at the end that they froze, or choked, call it what you will.
"Modern Test rugby at the highest level is all about the final 20 minutes, the part of the game when a team finds out about itself. What I could not understand from the start was why England did not play. In the second half, I cannot remember them getting behind Wales. A team that had ripped defences apart in the Six Nations failed to attack. Why? Because they set out not to lose rather than to win?"
He adds some words of comfort, though, for an England squad feeling the pressure ahead of their clash against Australia:
"I know what England are going through because I have been there and when you go through hard times you have to emerge the stronger for it.
"Under intense pressure the brain has a tendency to freeze. Players need the ability to stay in the now, making good decisions and playing with intensity and accuracy, using individual triggers to stay focused. Pressure and expectation are down to your success; recognise and understand that. Embrace it."
Sir Graham's column comes as England boss Stuart Lancaster faces a barrage of criticism - much of it from the UK media and former England players and coaches - over the team's performance.
The 2003 World Cup winning coach Sir Clive Woodward and former captain Will Carling have led the assault.
Woodward called England as "amateurs" and increased the pressure by describing Wales boss Warren Gatland as a one of the great modern day coaches.
"It pains me to say it but England looked like a team of amateurs playing against streetwise professionals in the last 20 minutes at Twickenham," said Woodward.
He backed Lancaster's decision to start Owen Farrell ahead of George Ford at No. 10 but said it all went wrong against Wales when Ford was brought on.
"Wales suffered a succession of injuries...but rather than take advantage, our substitutions evened the odds. Why abandon a seemingly successful game plan," he wrote.
"England didn't have the 15 players on the park you would want when the pressure is ramped up."
Woodward went easy on England compared to Carling's attack. The longtime centre said Lancaster adopted too much of a classroom approach and treated players as "schoolboys".
The Daily Mail said Carling was "scathing" of captain Chris Robshaw's "unbelievable" decision to turn down a late penalty chance, which would have levelled the scores, in favour of going for a try from a lineout move.
"I got the sense that England were panicking. I don't blame Chris as much as I blame others. I blame the environment," the paper reported Carling as telling Radio Five Live.
"We have a very prescriptive environment. I've listened to Stuart Lancaster say for years that 'I don't have the leaders and therefore we're having to make all the decisions as coaches.' It's a very classroom-orientated environment.
"What we watched in the last 10 minutes was a confused debate between people who have never been given responsibility to lead."
On the penalty kick decision, Carling said: "You have to kick the penalty. Farrell was kicking brilliantly and if we'd drawn that would not have been a disastrous result. It is such an unbelievable decision and sadly the wrong one.There are so many more variables in going for a lineout drive."
Former hooker Brian Moore wrote in the Telegraph that replacing Sam Burgess with Ford late in the game was "inexplicable". He also believed England should have taken the penalty shot at goal, and pointed out that had Farrell missed England would have got the ball back from a drop out.
Moore said: "The next 80 minutes at Twickenham will define this England generation."
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