MARTIN JOHNSON tried to deflect the pressure off his misfiring England team last night by talking up the Australians and claiming that his men would be better for the beating.

Johnson, who suffered three heavy defeats against southern hemisphere teams last season, claims England will be better prepared to take on Argentina at Twickenham on Saturday.

He said: “We will be better for the experience, both mentally and physically, after this match. Both tries conceded were disappointing and we kicked away too much ball, which let them off the hook.

“This England team was playing its first game while Australia are battled-hardened after the Tri-Nations and they were slicker than us.

“I don’t believe you can say that southern hemisphere teams are necessarily strong at the moment because history will tell you they have always been pretty good. It’s not a modern thing.

“In the second half we struggled to get out of our territory, kicked too much and invited pressure on to ourselves. We actually stole the ball but lost it before they scored their second try and that one killed us. The injuries we have had doesn’t excuse some of the things that we produced but we will improve.”

Johnson praised the contributions of Jonny Wilkinson and Lewis Moody, two of England’s most consistent performers. He said: “Jonny is a world-class player and it’s fabulous to have him back. We have time now to tweak some things to make sure we are better against Argentina.

“Lewis Moody hasn’t started a Test for a long time and we needed his leadership in the team. When you lose a match like this, it’s similar to being with your club side at the start of the season when you are defeated in the opening match. It feels like the end of the world but you’ve still got the whole season to go.”

Wilkinson spoke to the England players in a huddle after the match and accentuated the positives from the performance. He said: “It was great to be back and as a team we needed to put a marker down to find out where we are. They produced much quicker ball and we spent too much time in our own half.”

Moody said: “We can’t shrink back into our shells and have to come back and produce something against Argentina, who are going to be very tough.”

Steve Borthwick, the captain, added: “We did have good preparation time before this match but you learn so much more from a contest like that. There were good areas of the game for us, including the lineout. That’s what we’ll be concentrating on. It’s not all negative.”