Mowen admits defeat

Australia captain Ben Mowen threw in the towel and admitted his team was not up to standard at Twickenham on Saturday.

England launched their November campaign with a come-from-behind 20-13 victory over Australia, ending the Wallabies' bid for a Grand Slam at the first hurdle.

England were 6-13 down at half-time and would have been 10 points adrift had Quade Cooper kicked a penalty early in the second half.

But two tries in seven minutes from captain Chris Robshaw and flyhalf Owen Farrell turned the tide as England regained the Cook Cup against a Wallaby side they will face in the pool phase of the 2015 World Cup in England.

Defeat extended Australia's poor 2013 record to eight defeats from 11 matches, with just three wins.

"You've got to give it to the English," Mowen said in his post-match reaction.

"They scrambled really well and had more urgency."

Mowen admitted the defeat was "another learning process for us".

"We'll take a lot of good things out of this match, especially from the first half – so we'll take them and try and fix the things that didn't go so well in the second.

"I think they certainly did deserve to win – particularly given the urgency they showed in the second half," the Wallaby skipper added.

"We started the second half pretty well – they built a bit of pressure down on our own line and we didn't get the exit we were after and that led to the try and that was probably the turning point in the game.

"I thought they scrambled pretty well in defence and there was definitely a step up in gear in the second half, it was what we were talking about at half-time, but we didn't get the reaction we were after.

"We probably didn't exit our last 30 metres as we would have liked so we'll have a look at that."