England 37-42 Australia: Unforgivable to concede 42 points at home – Jamie George

England conceding 42 points at home in their Autumn Nations Series defeat by Australia is “unforgivable”, says captain Jamie George.

Maro Itoje’s 78th-minute try looked to have ended a run of three successive narrow defeats for Steve Borthwick’s side.

However, replacement wing Max Jorgensen stole the game four minutes into injury time as England’s defence leaked their fifth try at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

“It is a fine balance between closing up shop and trying to see out the win rather than attacking,” George told TNT Sports.

“We talk about being brave and courageous and that [Maro Itoje] try was exactly that.

“The system and the principle all works. We know it works but we didn’t quite get what we wanted out if it.

“Leaking 42 points at home is unforgivable. They got front-foot ball and then have some pretty good runners outside.”

The last time England conceded more than 40 points at Twickenham was in their when they suffered their record home defeat, 53-10 by France, during last year’s Six Nations.

England had led Joe Schmidt’s Australia by 12 points after two first-half tries from Chandler Cunningham-South, but surrendered that advantage by half-time.

The hosts – under new defence coach Joe El-Abd – failed to live with Australia’s dangerous attacking talent.

Replacement wing Ollie Sleightholme had put England 30-28 up heading into the final 10 minutes, before the visitors snatched the lead back with five minutes to go through Andrew Kellaway.

And despite reclaiming the advantage through Itoje, England were unable to close out the game from the resulting restart.

The result draws similarities with last weekend’s 24-22 defeat by New Zealand when England conceded a 76th-minute try and blew an eight-point lead.

It is the fourth game in a row that Borthwick’s side have fallen on the wrong side of the final play, following two close Tests against the All Blacks in July.

His side were also defeated 33-31 by France in their final game of this year’s Six Nations, thanks to a late Thomas Ramos penalty.

Former England wing Ugo Monye said the defeat against Australia is like “groundhog day” and that being “unlucky” is no longer an excuse.

“The ending is this continuous nightmare of not closing out a match,” he told TNT Sports.

“It is a real problem and not unlucky any more. This is a trend that has stuck with England.”