Losing to Australia is nothing new for England – and it is certainly nothing to be embarrassed about – but this time there seems a more pressing need for questions to be asked of the national side. On an afternoon when Wayne Bennett’s side had merely to avoid defeat to qualify for the Four Nations final – against the same opponents – the fact that they trailed by four points at half-time to a team who had barely got out of first gear was an ominous warning of what would follow.

If England were competitive in the first half, the pressure was too much to bear in the second as the Kangaroos began to show their class. Tries for Greg Inglis, Matt Scott and Josh Dugan quickly turned a four-point gap into a 22-point one from which England could not recover and Australia ran out 36-18 winners and now face New Zealand in Sunday’s final at Anfield.

England, as in their narrow defeat by the Kiwis a fortnight earlier, had started well enough, going ahead via a penalty from Gareth Widdop and, after Johnathan Thurston had levelled to make it 2-2, they went back in front when Jermaine McGillvary touched down. At that point a 6-2 lead was no less than England’s effort deserved.

But as half-time approached and the Australians began to find their rhythm, England began to toil under the increasing pressure. Blake Ferguson capitalised on an error from Mark Percival to level the scores again and from there Australia never trailed.

After failing to find touch with a penalty 30 seconds from half-time, a penalty conceded by Sam Burgess – “Sam gives away too many penalties, he needs to change that,” Bennett said post-match – afforded Thurston, who had converted Ferguson’s try, the opportunity to nudge the lead out to four. Given how they had been way below their best, that was a fairly grim warning for what was to follow.

After the break Inglis, Scott and Dugan quickly gave Australia an unassailable advantage. England, to their credit, rallied with tries from Widdop and Ryan Hall but two more Australia tries in response illustrated what people feared: England cannot get the better of the Kangaroos.

Bennett said afterwards England are capable of winning the World Cup next year – the work he does between now and then will determine how feasible that is after another year of failure and disappointment – and another demoralising postmortem is now all England and Bennett can look forward to.

So what now? For the Kangaroos and New Zealand it is the final while England take on a watching brief wondering, as they have so many times down the years, what if. And what of Bennett? Criticism of his approach to the media since his appointment as coach in February was met with a philosophy of “he’s here to win games”. Sadly Bennett is not doing that. Though England limped to victory against France and Scotland, against the world’s top two they have failed again.

It is reasonable to question whether England have actually gone backwards since Steve McNamara’s departure. For all the hype surrounding Burgess’s return to international rugby league, he has failed to hit the heights that brought him universal acclaim before his switch to rugby union in October 2014– and England’s age-old problem at half-back remains unresolved.

Bennett’s decision to try a third different half-back pairing in the three games illustrates the point: nobody, not even the coach, knows the solution right now. The result, therefore, remains the same – and 12 months away from a World Cup England have once again shown they are not at the level of the world’s two best sides.

For all the effort and endeavour from England – and there was plenty – it was the same misgivings which cost them. The failure to find touch from routine penalties, the lacklustre discipline and the poor attacking play all combined to make an afternoon which had a distinctly familiar feeling to it. Some things in sport are destined never to change, and the more England play Australia, it looks as if their ability to beat the world champions is one of those examples.

“The job is a bit easier than I thought, believe it or not,” Bennett said. “I thought I’d have a lot more issues than this. England are capable of being a lot better than they are now, I know that much. They’re a lot closer than a lot of you guys realise. You just can’t get away with the mistakes at this level.”

England Lomax; McGillvary, Watkins, Percival, Hall; Brown, Widdop; Hill, Hodgson, Graham, Bateman, Whitehead, S Burgess. Interchange T Burgess, G Burgess, Cooper, Williams.

Tries McGillvary, Hall, Widdop Goals Widdop 2.

Australia Boyd; Holmes, Inglis, Dugan, Ferguson; Thurston, Cronk; Scott, Smith, Woods, Cordner, Gillett, Merrin. Interchange Klemmer, Morgan, Frizell, Thaiday.

Tries Ferguson, Inglis, Scott, Dugan, Gillett, Holmes Goals Thurston 6.

Referee R Hicks (Eng) Attendance 35,569.