England outclass Australia 37-21 to cap memorable year

England overcame a bad start to overwhelm Australia 37-21 with a dominant display at Twickenham on Saturday. The Rugby Union team ends a fantastic year of 13 victories under coach Eddie Jones.

England head coach Eddie Jones gestures during the warm up before the match against Australia. Reuters / Henry Browne

Australia coach Michael Cheika is confident there will be a long-term benefit to the Wallabies from a difficult 2016.

Australia were overpowered in the second half on Saturday as England recorded their fourth win over the Wallabies this year and a 14th in a row against all opponents.

"This year has been about teaching ourselves a few things," said Cheika after Australia, 10-0 up early on, were eventually outscored four tries to two by England at Twickenham.

"We've played the top two teams (New Zealand and England) seven times this year with a whole bunch of new players and that's going to be good even if the outcomes haven't been good."

The result meant Australia had lost nine of their 15 Tests in 2016, leaving Cheika with a win percentage for the year almost as bad as the one that saw England coach Eddie Jones dismissed as Wallaby boss over a decade ago.

The 40 percent win rate was Australia's worst since the Wallabies managed just 38.5 percent in 2005 -- a return that got Jones the sack.

But after taking Australia to last year's World Cup final, there is no suggestion that Cheika is in imminent danger of suffering a similar fate.

And having introduced 13 debutants this year, Cheika was confident his investment in new talent would yield a dividend at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

England's current winning sequence started at last year's World Cup where a 'meaningless' success over Uruguay came after Australia had knocked the tournament hosts out earlier in the group stage.

Eddie Jones replaced sacked coach Stuart Lancaster in November 2015 and has now won all his first 13 Tests as England boss, a including a Six Nations Grand Slam and a 3-0 series success in Australia in June.

But Jones, Australia's coach when they lost the 2003 World Cup final to England, said his sole focus was on toppling reigning champions New Zealand -- a team they next play in 2018 -- in Japan in three years' time.

"The only record we're interested in is being the number one team in the world," said Jones. "To do that you've got to win the World Cup.

"There are clocks around Twickenham which say how many days until the World Cup final -- 1,020 days. Every day counts.

"We're only the number two team in the world and we want to be number one. We've got a long way to go before we achieve that. And we're hell-bent on achieving that."