England head coach Wayne Bennett has insisted that his players "competed well" in their comprehensive defeat to Australia, but must simply avoid making minor errors if they are to improve their fortunes.
The hosts fell to a 36-18 loss at the London Stadium to see their Four Nations campaign end in a miserable fashion on Sunday afternoon.
Only avoiding defeat would do for England, who were outplayed after taking an early lead and were regularly exposed by Australia, meaning that they finished outside the top two and will not progress to next weekend's Anfield final.
Bennett claims that he has identified where his side are going wrong, though he does not believe a lack of quality and skill from his players is to blame for this latest setback.
"If you look at the context of the game we competed well, but made errors," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News. "The problem is our inability to continually maintain pressure... not finding the sideline on two occasions, which is pretty important in any context let alone against the best team in the world.
"Then the stupid penalties we continually give away. England are very capable of being a lot better than they are right now. A lot closer than all of you in this room realise. Until we get these little problems out of the road... that's manifested by their club football, I have seen that and they get away with it at that level, you can't at this, that's the difference.
"It's not commitment, effort, guys trying hard, good skills. It's all there, they just have to clean their act up and figure out what beats them. They think it's the opposition that beats them."
Bennett has won the NRL title in Australia seven times with Brisbane Broncos and St George, as well as taking charge of Australia across two separate spells.
Daniel Lewis
