Australia outclasses England to knock out the hosts

England backs coach Andy Farrell admits centre Jonathan Joseph is struggling for fitness ahead of their second Rugby World Cup encounter this weekend.

He believes RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie and professional rugby director Rob Andrew must be held accountable for appointing Lancaster as Martin Johnson’s permanent successor in March 2012.

England must beat Australia at Twickenham on Sunday morning (NZT) if they are to avoid being knocked out of their own World Cup at the Pool stage.

“Lessons will be learnt in a calm and thorough manner in the fullness of time, post-tournament”. “This is going to sit with us all forever – players, coaches, management”, Lancaster said in the aftermath of the stunning defeat on Saturday by the Wallabies.

“I am just gutted”.

He continued: “You’ve got to put things into perspective, it’s great that we’ve qualified, but you’ve got to feel for other teams because there are families and livelihoods at stake”.

England’s rugby team have crashed out of the World Cup after losing 33-13 to Australia at Twickenham.

“Last week we let Wales of the hook, but today we were comprehensively beaten”.

“Win the Wales game”, he said.

“We knew there would be a lot of pain being in England’s backyard, and the atmosphere was outrageously loud, and that’s not an easy thing to deal with when you’re in the minority like that”.

Lancaster said now was not the time for him to quit, with England still having one “dead” fixture against Pool A minnows Uruguay in Manchester on Saturday.

“I would hope the players would be supportive in the review”, Lancaster said.

Coach Stuart Lancaster’s side did reduce the deficit when Anthony Watson bulldozed over the line with 25 minutes to play and a penalty from Owen Farrell had the crowd on their feet, but Australia ultimately proved too canny.

But the “Pool of Death” would never have come about if, shortly before the draw was made, Wales had not played Australia outside of the official window for global matches.

“From my World Cup experience, finishing top of your pool is very important”.

“A lot of people have written us off, and we have demonstrated that character when we are under pressure”, said Gatland.

“He is a massive player for Wales at this moment in time and a real go-to man. He has taken the team by the scruff of the neck and he makes good decisions”.

“Australia had 750 caps in their starting XV and we had 450 – we can go through why that’s happened but we’d need to go back all the way to 2011”.

Refusing to crumble as Australian forwards have in the past after early setbacks, his pack stepped up their efforts and by the end of the game, reduced what was until recently one of the most highly regarded scrums in world rugby to disarray.

Lancaster has a contract until 2020, but when he was asked whether he would now be considering his position he replied: “Yeah, obviously I think I’ve got to”.