England 20-13 Australia
McKenzie philosophical despite costly errors
ESPN Staff
November 2, 2013
Ewen McKenzie watches on as the Reds warm-up, Queensland Reds v New South Wales Waratahs, Super Rugby, ANZ Stadium, Sydney, July 13, 2013
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie will concentrate on his own side's errors © Getty Images
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Australia were left ruing two controversial refereeing decisions as their rugby grand slam tilt crashed at the first hurdle in a painful 20-13 loss to England.

Frustrated coach Ewen McKenzie refrained from criticising the match officials but cut a bitter figure at Twickenham on Saturday after both massive calls went against the tourists and resulted in back-to-back English tries.

The Australians also led to their own demise as they failed to handle the pressure in front of a packed crowd of 80,000 to slump to their eighth loss from 11 Tests this year. They must live with giving away a huge opportunity when up and running at 13-6 early in the second half.

The match turned when vice-captain Quade Cooper missed an angled penalty attempt for a 10-point lead and then England's Man-of-the-Match Mike Brown plucked a Matt Toomua touch-finder out of the sky.

Ewen McKenzie says the Wallabies will learn from their defeat
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Fullback Brown was standing on the sideline at the time but it was missed by the touch judge and his counter-attack ultimately sparked a Chris Robshaw try at the other end from a charged-down Will Genia box-kick.

"Obviously it [Brown's feet in touch] flashed up on the big screen so that was a 90-metre turnaround and there's seven points at the end of it and theoretically we should have been having a lineout five metres out," McKenzie said. "You can't say those things don't have an impact on the game but I guess that's part of the vagaries of rugby. We'll look at the opportunities we had and the mistakes we made.

"England squeezed us a little bit at crucial moments, not in a complicated way but they did and were able to manage the game. I thought we did pretty well first half and fought a 7-1 penalty count against us but we lead at half-time so there are bits there for us to work with. But we have to keep our composure in the last part of the game."

England were also helped by a 50-50 Television Match Official decision when Owen Farrell strolled over eight minutes later as he ghosted between Stephen Moore and Ben Mowen. Hooker Moore had his path blocked by an off-side Dylan Hartley but TMO Marshall Kilgore decided "there wasn't enough of an obstruction" to deny the try.

The Wallabies, who were guilty of kicking too much, struggled to regain their composure as the English pack upset their ball at the breakdown to clinch the Cook Cup. They must dust themselves off against Italy in Turin next Saturday while ensuing games against Ireland, Scotland and Wales no longer hold the same level of interest with grand slam hopes shot.

"It's hugely disappointing," captain Ben Mowen said. "This is a game we well focussed on. "At half-time and the period just after there was a real opportunity to skip ahead and put the pressure on England and we missed those opportunities."

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