England lost to Australia 34-3 in Sydney in their opening Cook Cup match, despite having the upper hand in the forwards and in dominating possession.

They were out-scored three tries to none by Australia, but despite the one-sided score line coach Andy Robinson is keeping upbeat as he tries to focus on only the good points, and not the fact that England struggled to score any points against Australia.

Last weekend's second test saw England ring seven changes in their starting 15, but the outcome remained the same, as Australia won 43-18. Again England maintained most of the possession but failed to capitalize.

So despite the losses, is England efforts to try and build a competitive team for the 2007 World Cup too late?

The English team that won the 2003 World Cup was built around a core group of players who had played and won consistently together. The current English squad hasn't won consistently since the 2003 triumph, and by resting key players, such as current captain Martin Corry, they are not maintaining that core of players.

England has only won four of their last 10 tests, and two of those wins came against Samoa and Italy, ranked 10th and 11th respectively.

The 2007 World Cup is only 18 months away, and improvement needs to come quickly for England if they want a repeat as world champs in France next year. Otherwise, the World championship will only be a pipe-dream, as there are plenty of nations that are either higher in the world rankings or have showed significant improvement of late.

The next World Cup might not see the English rose, but English fans might be rosy-cheeked if their team fails to live up to expectations.