Unforgivable to concede 42 points at home - George

England also conceded 17 turnovers and made 14 handling errors, statistics which Borthwick said handed the visitors opportunities.

"Every side has talent and pace at this level and you will be punished," the England head coach added.

"The opportunities and points we gave them was because they had too much space as we handed the ball over to them.

"We are all gutted, as will be the England supporters. I am incredibly disappointed as are all the players.

"We will be learning from all of this, but the pain of this is something we didn't want to go through.

"The first 20 minutes is how we wanted to play and at times later in the second half."

Borthwick confirmed flanker Tom Curry, who suffered a first-half head knock, will miss next Saturday's visit of world champions South Africa.

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 five matches that Borthwick's side have fallen on the wrong side of the final play, following two close Tests against the All Blacks in July and a 33-31 defeat by France in their final game of this year's Six Nations.

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."