Playmaker Quade Cooper's defensive shortcomings will come under more scrutiny as the Wallabies rake over a record rugby Test loss to England at Twickenham.

Fed up with a spate of worrying defensive lapses in recent matches, the Australians must find a way to stem the leaking of points against.

Defence and issues at the breakdown were the areas highlighted after Saturday's 35-18 hammering, with England racking up the highest points tally in a Test between the two nations and equalling their biggest winning margin.

Australia may have been forced to make more tackles in total, but they still missed a whopping 21 to the home side's three.

While he certainly wasn't alone, perhaps most worrying is Cooper's six missed tackles, triple the number of any other player on the field.

The Australian five-eighth came up with as many misses as he did effective tackles.

It is no secret opposition sides are running at Cooper, who doesn't shirk the work but, for all his attacking prowess, is struggling in defence.

"We were at times inadequate in our response," coach Robbie Deans conceded.

"Clearly our defensive awareness was poor early.

"Some of the one-on-one responsibility wasn't there."

Recent victories over South Africa on the highveld, the All Blacks in Hong Kong and Wales in Cardiff have glossed over the Wallabies' defensive issues.

They let big leads slip in two Tests in South Africa, allowed New Zealand back into a match they led 22-9 in Sydney and also struggled defensively in Hong Kong.

"That was what killed us a bit," hooker Stephen Moore said.

"Maybe our kick-chase line wasn't great and we just let them through there a few times and slipped off a few.

"It was a bit of an issue for us in Hong Kong as well so we've got to look closely at that."

Deans would not rule out changes for next week's Test against Italy and will get another chance to peruse his options in Tuesday night's match against Munster in Limerick.

Defence was just one area the English dominated in what some local scribes were describing as the side's greatest victory since the 2003 World Cup triumph.

They battered Australia at the breakdown before employing a wide, counter-attacking game few had expected, and which netted impressive winger Chris Ashton his two tries.

The much-vaunted battle of the scrums failed to materialise as the rain finally stayed away in London.

"Some of our collision work still has to get better," Deans said.

"They got a sniff and got their tails up and profited in that area.

"The game's just played lower here and we tend to think it will be played on your feet, but it's not and we've got to adapt to that."

Adding to Australia's woes, new goalkicker James O'Connor could only manage three from seven, while linchpin Will Genia is likely to need X-rays on a rib injury suffered early in the second half.

The Wallabies' dreams of an unbeaten tour are over, while the search for consistency is back on.

"You'd like to go and win as many games as you can without losing but they were certainly the better team on the day and sometimes you've just got to give them credit, cop it sweet and get into the next game," Moore said.

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