England's rugby players have implored fans to give Martin Johnson's fledgling side time to knit together after a 32-6 loss to New Zealand rounded off a largely miserable month of Twickenham Tests.

England's second-heaviest home defeat came hot on the heels of the previous week's record-breaking 42-6 thumping by world champions South Africa, itself preceded by Australia's 28-14 win.

Had not usually accurate five-eighth Dan Carter missed five of 11 goalkicks, the scale of New Zealand's seventh successive victory over England, a record for matches between the two countries, might have been greater still.

But after seeing the All Blacks wrap up their third grand slam, having not conceded a try in wins over Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England, flanker James Haskell insisted his side would be much improved by the time of their next match, the Six Nations opener at home to Italy on February 7.

"Anyone watching at home who cares about English rugby should know we have the passion, we have the ability," Haskell said.

"It comes down to execution and ruthlessness. We will do it. When you're building something new, it takes time."

When England last beat New Zealand, 15-13 in Wellington five years ago in the run-up to their World Cup triumph, they finished the match down to 13 men after Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio had been sin-binned.

But the present England team have struggled to remain competitive at full-strength and they didn't help their cause on Saturday by having four players yellow-carded.

It was hard to argue with Irish referee Alain Rolland's rulings which included the temporary exclusion of Haskell for swinging an arm at All Black No.8 Rodney So'oialo.

"We were penalised quite a bit and you can't afford to have that against a side like New Zealand," Haskell said.

Johnson, who for the second match in a row saw England fail to score a try, said effort alone was not enough.

"People say we turned up and played but that is the absolute minimum for us," said Johnson.

England's 2003 World Cup-winning captain has just one win, over the composite Pacific Islanders, to show from his first four games in charge.

But the defeats came against three of the world's top-ranked teams, who will all be in the first rank of seeds for Monday's 2011 World Cup draw in London.

England almost scored the first try of Saturday's match when, early in the second-half, No.8 Nick Easter broke clear only to be ankle-tapped in sight of the line by Mils Muliaina.

Fullback Muliaina went on to score two tries for the Tri Nations champions, with centre Ma'a Nonu adding a third.

Yet a bullish Johnson, whose team featured just one Wellington survivor in prop Phil Vickery, took heart from how England kept pace early on to be just 12-3 down at the break.

"For a long time we made a very good side look normal," he insisted.

Last year England were the losing finalists, going down 15-6 to the Springboks, at a World Cup where New Zealand were dumped out at the quarter-final stage by France.

But Easter admitted: "The scoreboard doesn't lie. It's a fair reflection of how far ahead the southern hemisphere teams are at the moment - they seem to have stretched away a fair bit since the World Cup."

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