For the first time in my life I was supporting Australia for 80 minutes on Sunday morning. But I did comment to some Australian friends that I would be citing any Australian players straight after the game. I think they were fantastic, they played some really good rugby which now frightens me.

England, by virtue of their losses to Wales and Australia, don't belong in the World Cup. No team does if they are going to lose twice.

It's a fair exit, a real shame as they are the hosts, but I have to say I am really sorry for Stuart Lancaster because you come down to how they lost against Wales, having had a 10-point advantage; they were beaten by Australia fairly and squarely, but they could have been the second qualifier coming out of Pool A.

England players react after losing the 2015 Rugby World Cup Pool A match between England and Australia© Mitchell Gunn/Getty Images

England's whole fate could have been different but it's not and that is the way it pans out at a Rugby World Cup. That's sport. You suck it up and get on with it. But it's just a shame that Lancaster will be scrutinised the way he will be. I know at the end of the day it is not rocket science, it is sport; you win, we lose, that's the way it works. But Lancaster's career and coaching ability and everything else now comes into question, and that's just a load of rubbish really; someone has got to tick a box which basically comes down to someone deciding not take a kick at goal and going for the corner. It was a split-second decision made by his captain in the heat of the moment, which is what sport is all about: how you react under pressure.

There's a lot of other jibing going back and forward on the internet via Facebook and the like, but the decision to name Joe Launchbury Man of the Match was a travesty that highlights a one-eyed, unrealistic process to produce a decision like that. It doesn't fit.

You could tell Launchbury was embarrassed by the decision, and he didn't really want the award because he lost fair and square and a guy in the opposition scored 28 points including two tries. And if that player wasn't good enough, you also had David Pocock and Michael Hooper who were absolutely outstanding. The decision just reeks of cheap and easy - a decision made by someone who's got their head in the clouds and who wants to make a goodwill gesture.

Perhaps the decision was a reflection of a lack of reality in what has gone on in England's Cup preparation. They had high-altitude training camps, and all sorts of build-up, but they didn't look fit in either of their past two games against Australia and Wales.

Adam Ashley-Cooper and David Pocock applaud Wallabies fans Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

For me, the way the Australians played that game, and especially the way they scrummaged, was a statement of how far they have come and how dangerous they are going to be. There has always been chinks in Australia's armour but Mario Ledesma, their scrum coach, has got them firing really, really well; they are not only strong and well-drilled, they are smart.

Bob Dwyer banged on all week about the way Joe Marler was boring in, after my fellow ESPN columnist Brett McKay had kicked off the #ScrumStraightJoe hashtag on Twitter, so Australia crabbed the scrum to the right. If you crab the scrum to the right, the loose-head has to follow: he only has one shoulder to push on so of course his spine is going to look like he's boring; but he actually wasn't even pushing.

Joe Marler and Dan Cole were impotent in England's scrum David Rogers/Getty Images

The referee saw the picture and penalised him. It was a great Australian tactic adopted just by being smart. Marler wasn't boring, he was just moving to the right-hand side of the scrum because that's the way Australia shuffled; the Wallabies just milked it off the referee.

You can pretty much milk a scrum penalty off the referee every time.

The referees are painting a picture from what they see, but they've never been in the front-row; they've got no idea and smart teams can get away with it.

Any coach who is half-smart will ensure his pack has got a call to take two steps back when his half-back puts the ball in on the engage; you'll get a penalty.

That highlights just what the game of rugby has come down to. It's a really broken model we've got when we can do that and penalties can dictate a World Cup.

I would really like to know what World Rugby are going to do to fix it; and who they are getting in to do the fixing because the likes of myself have never had a phone call to be asked about it and I think I'm reasonably well qualified to look at the scrums.