England head coach Stuart Lancaster has admitted that his side lack a killer instinct following their early exit from the Rugby World Cup.
The Red Rose made a number of breaks during their 33-13 defeat at the hands of Australia at Twickenham this evening, but they failed to turn that into points as the Wallabies condemned the host nation to elimination.
England also failed to capitalise on spells in charge during their defeat against Wales last weekend, and Lancaster acknowledges that his side were not clinical enough on either occasion.
When asked whether his side lacked the killer instinct, Lancaster told Sports Mole: "Yeah, I think that's fair. When you strip back the emotion of everything and look at the game, I thought the first half it was pretty even stevens and the scoreline never reflected that.
"There was a crucial scrum penalty that went against us and Australia scored on the back of that and that made it 17-3. But take the last 10 minutes aside, we played some good stuff in the second half.
"I thought [David] Pocock was outstanding on the day, any time they really threatened the Australian line there was a turnover that he was involved with. We scored four tries against Fiji and were 22-12 up against Wales and we didn't finish the job, so it's a fair point."
England have failed to progress from the group stages of the Rugby World Cup for the first time in their history, while they are also the first host nation to suffer that fate.
Barney Corkhill
