England captain Jamie George says the squad will use the frustration from their dramatic loss to Australia as “fuel” for next week’s showdown with World Champions South Africa.
For the second week in a row, England suffered a late loss as Max Jorgensen’s 84th-minute try secured a 42-37 victory for Australia at Twickenham.
England had looked on course to secure a much-needed win when Maro Itoje scored with two minutes to go and Marcus Smith nailed the conversion to nudge them two points ahead.
Australia fought back, though, and George must now pick his England team-mates up ahead of a clash with the Springboks next week.
“I think it’s my job, it’s also everyone else’s job in the squad,” he said. “We have got a great group of senior players who are very good in these situations.
“I think what we do very well is we address things head on. Like I sort of reiterated earlier, it is such an easy group.
“There is so much excitement around what we are doing and belief in what we are doing. Of course, there are frustrations and there are going to be some people who are very frustrated at the result tonight and parts of the performance.
“That’s almost fuel for us next week and how we can get better and be in the best place we possibly can to take on South Africa.
“The bounce-back message is, how are we able to back up the good things with another good thing, with another good thing? That’s what Test match rugby is about.
“We have got a fantastic opposition coming here to Allianz Stadium in South Africa. Back-to-back world champions, I don’t see it as a better opportunity.
“We are going to get ourselves right. We are going to make sure that we are right physically. We are going to have a great training week.
“We are going to have a brilliant plan going into the game and we are going to believe in what we are doing.
“And if it is close in that game too, we are going to continue to play with endeavour, play big and play to win the game.”
England’s defeat to Australia stings after their narrow loss to New Zealand last week, when fly-half George Ford missed a last-minute drop-goal to win the game.
Head coach Steve Borthwick admitted he was “gutted” at this week’s loss to the Wallabies and bemoaned England making the game too open.
“It’s a game we should have won, we were in a position to win,” he said. “Multiple times in the game, we put ourselves in position to go and win the game - and we didn’t.
“I think ultimately when you turnover that much ball and make the game that unstructured, against a team with that much pace, you are giving them opportunities. And we gave them far too many opportunities.
“I think it is one where every England supporter and every England player, and everyone associated with the team, is gutted right now.”
