Australia will play New Zealand twice in the space of a week after confirming their place in the November 13 finale, but next Saturday night's dead rubber will be anything but meaningless after Sheens declared he was not yet set on his first choice side.

While the Melbourne rain and some tardy work at the ruck by referee Tony Archer didn't aid his men, Sheens said they fell well short of the standard he desired, particularly in a lacklustre second-half display.

Australia had surged to a 26-8 halftime after capitalising on a litany of errors by an England side which imploded after taking a surprise 8-6 lead after 15 minutes.

But the Australians managed only one try after the break - that off an obvious forward pass from man of the match Luke Lewis.

"There will be some changes in respect there's a couple of injuries but also I don't think a couple of guys played well enough," Sheens said.

"I said to them before the game - the 17 guys who started all had experience ... a lot of the guys not playing were the rookies and that's why the senior guys got the chance.

"I played them game one from a point of view of getting them condition, game two was a critical game, we went out with an experienced side, but there's no doubt there were some fundamental errors in and around the ruck.

"I am concerned about how easy they walked through us in the middle ... New Zealand would be licking their lips with the thought of some of the defence in the middle tonight so we're going to have to be a lot better than that." Both of England tries came through the middle, Sam Burgess crushing over to answer Lewis's opening try for a 6-6 scoreline and Luke Robinson darting over from dummy half early in the second half.

Around that, however, the English were their own worst enemy, three of Australia's six tries coming directly from errors by the opposition.

"We made too many errors, simple as that," England coach Steve McNamara said.

"We were by long way in the game, we were physically very dominant at the start of the game ... but we hurt ourselves with some errors which was pretty clear to see and Australia seized on those opportunities at the right period of time." A Paul Gallen high tackle allowed Ben Westwood to put England ahead 8-6 via a penalty goal on 15 minutes, but that and the coming of the rain signalled the beginning of the end of the visitors as the errors crept in.

Darrell Goulding knocked-on inside his own half to present Lewis with an opportunity to score his second of the night before opposite winger Tom Briscoe came up with a monumental gaffe off a Darren Lockyer kick to allow Billy Slater to swoop and score.

There was plenty of doubt about Brent Tate's put down as he found the line for a 20-8 lead.

Willie Tonga completed the first-half onslaught when Lewis unselfishly passed up on a hattrick after picking up a loose pass.

There was some hope among the smattering of English fans in the 18,894-strong crowd when Robinson scythed over three metres after the restart, but Lote Tuqiri's try off the dubious Lewis pass four minutes later took the wind out of the visitors and the game.

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