MIKE Catt offered a brutally honest assessment of England's latest demoralising defeat Down Under, conceding: "We were hammered."

The London Irish centre's 11th appearance against Australia - an England record - ended in a predictable 43-18 battering as the Wallabies followed up their 34-3 first Test victory by inflicting a six-try drubbing on Andy Robinson's hapless world champions.

While Australia regained the Cook Cup, England could only reflect on a fifth successive defeat which saw them create an unwanted piece of history.

No previous reigning world champion has suffered such a dismal sequence of results, with England removing South Africa's four-game losing run in 1999 from the record books.

Prospects

And it promises to become even tougher for England, who will reassemble in the autumn for Twickenham clashes with New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.

While head coach Robinson continues to make positive noises about England's prospects of mounting a meaningful World Cup defence next year, reality suggests otherwise.

Several players rested from this summer's tour - key personnel such as Charlie Hodgson, Mark Cueto, Andrew Sheridan, Steve Thompson, Danny Grewcock and Martin Corry - should return for a punishing November schedule.

And there were flickers of hope provided during the past fortnight by relative newcomers Peter Richards, George Chuter and Mathew Tait, but those rare bright spots could not detract from a glaring fear that England appear to be going nowhere fast.

Appointments

In their last five away appointments with Australia and New Zealand, they have conceded exactly 200 points, while scoring just 51, which illustrates how much the odds are currently stacked against them competing at the 2007 World Cup's business end.

"International rugby is a lot harder than people expect, and when you come up against sides like Australia, who are well-drilled and get as much turnover ball as they did, they are formidable," said 34-year-old World Cup winner Catt, who could conceivably have made his last Test appearance.

"It is disappointing to lose the way we did, but it is even more disappointing the way we created chances but couldn't finish them off to keep us in the game."

Elsewhere, there was muted joy for Jim Mallinder's Under-21s side that beat Scotland 31-21 in the Under-21s World Cup in France. Unfortunately they finished only fifth in the league which means they missed out to New Zealand for a semi-final place.

Mallinder pinned faith in Sale Jets scrum-half Ben Foden who sprang into life after his Jets' half-back colleague, David Blair, had put Scotland ahead through three penalties.

There wasn't even any consolation for England in Canada after losing the Churchill Plate Cup 30-27 to Ireland.

ORRELL have appointed a new coach for next season. Chris Chudleigh, a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.