Smith: We left ourselves too much to do

England coach Tony Smith says his side left themselves “too much to do” after a poor first-half performance against Australia in the Gillette Four Nations.

The home side were 26-0 down at the half-time interval and went on to lose 26-16.

Smith said that Australia had exploited mistakes made by England in the opening forty minutes, adding that the performance could be improved upon.

“We’re disappointed, we left ourselves too much to do,” said Smith.

“Some of it was some very good play from Australia early on in the game but they exploited some areas in our team and they took advantage of some situations too.

“If you just slightly show them the door they will barge their way through it. That is what they did in the first half.

“We felt we could do a whole lot better and we showed that in the second half. We had a talk. We didn’t like the situation we were in and we didn’t like the scoreboard.

“It was either pull together and do something about it or … I don’t know what the other option would have been.

“A couple of opportunities we created could have given us an even closer game towards the end. We had too much to do in too little time.”

England can reach Four Nations final if they beat New Zealand in Huddersfield next week, Smith adding, “There’s a big incentive for us.

“We’d love another crack at Australia but we’re up against a very good team in New Zealand this week.”