Matt Giteau admits he probably didn't have his game face on in Saturday's scrappy win over Italy, but the classy playmaker has promised to have the Wallabies firing again in this weekend's grudge match with England.

Accepting he was "off" in the 30-20 victory over the Azzurri, after being caught out by his early entry off the bench, Giteau suspects the entire Australian backline underestimated Italy - and almost paid the ultimate price.

"We created a lot of opportunities but maybe we didn't show the Italians as much respect as we needed to," Giteau told AAP.

"At times, we showed some good progress. We made some good dents in them, but then we probably pushed the pass.

"We'd throw a silly ball, a 50-50 ball trying to get a result. We tried to score without building anything.

"But I think this week will be a different game. We won't disrespect England."

Giteau acknowledged his ball security and option-taking let him down in an attacking display which fell short of his usual high standards.

There was nothing wrong his goalkicking, though, as he slotted a cool six from six for an important 17-point haul for the Wallabies.

"I'm always disappointed with certain aspects of my game," Giteau said.

"Obviously I was pretty happy with my goalkicking but, at times, my execution (with the ball in hand) was off and it does start with the half and five-eighth.

"So obviously we'll be looking forward to a better performance against England, although I thought 'Burgo' (halfback Luke Burgess) went really well for me in particular at the weekend."

Giteau said he found it difficult mentally coming off the bench in only the 12th minute as a replacement for starting five-eighth Berrick Barnes, who suffered a tour-ending knee injury.

"That was pretty tough. I wasn't expecting to get a real lot of game time at all," he said.

"But, having said that, it's still always a great honour to play for your country, so there's no real excuses.

"It was just one of those games where I was just that little bit off."

He was not alone, though, with coach Robbie Deans critical of the entire backline's poor option-taking in attack, saying the Wallabies were guilty of looking for short cuts.

"(It was) not surprising. When you consider most of them haven't played for seven weeks. Some of them haven't played for three months," Deans said.

"Our instinctive decisions in contact will be better and we've got a fantastic opportunity coming.

"That's something we're really excited about, playing at Twickenham against England. It doesn't get any better."

Despite the side's spluttering performance against Italy, Deans said he had no intentions of curbing his players' attacking instincts.

"They're out there. They know the feel, they know the chemistry. It's their game. If they believe in what they're doing, it's their choice," he said.

"And we'll just continue to work at getting better at what we do.

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