Howley 'disappointed' with Wales
Australian flyhalf Bernard Foley was in imperious form as he helped extend the Wallabies' winning streak over Wales to 12 games with a comprehensive 32-8 victory.
Howley, temporarily at the helm with Warren Gatland having been seconded to the British and Irish Lions ahead of the 2017 tour to New Zealand, did not hide his anger with his side's performance.
"The possession and territory at one point were over 80 percent, it wasn't what we expected," said the former Wales scrumhalf.
"We never had a foothold in the game.
"When you give a side that's very cohesive, that's been together the period of time they have been, you can see how effective they are, particularly with the speed of ball in the contact area and we were unable to influence that area and then we were unable to get our defensive line set so it made it very, very difficult.
"In fairness to Australia, they took every possible advantage that they could, created a number of tries and scored."
Howley added: "Because of the scoreboard, you start playing too much rugby in your own half, trying to force things because you're playing against the scoreboard and that has an influence in terms of the Australian defensive line, which was pretty aggressive.
"I thought we could be defensively better, particularly structurally, we made a couple of wrong reads. The boys were despondent coming in at half-time.
"It showed that the more you play at this level exposed to teams like that the more you learn."
Wales next face Argentina before hosting Japan and South Africa, captain Gethin Jenkins acknowledging that the Pumas would be a tough test.
"Argentina are up there with the top teams, performing well in the Rugby Championship," the prop said.
"They pose a few different threats but they're definitely another strong team. We've got to bounce back."
Jenkins admitted that his team had not got their hands on the ball in the first half.
"We made errors and they punished us," said Wales' most capped player, with 127.
"It's always an uphill task to get back into the game but full credit to Australia.
"We showed some good spirit at the end but we lost the game in the first half."
Agence France-Presse
