Michael Cheika's last and most defiant act at the Rugby World Cup was to state that he got it right by adopting a ball-in-hand approach for the Wallabies in Japan.

The evidence all points to the contrary after the Australia were given a lesson in streetwise rugby by England in the quarter-final in Oita, crashing to a record 40-16 defeat.

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It is the heaviest loss the Wallabies have suffered in nine editions of the World Cup and a sour note to end on for Cheika, who is set to be shown the door by Rugby Australia.

Although the coach wouldn't declare his intentions immediately after the game, it is understood Rugby Australia will launch a review into the failure of 2019 and a new coach will be appointed.

Cheika's legion of critics has grown in the latter stages of his five-year tenure not helped by his refusal to add a kicking dimension.

Michael Cheika refused to accept he had got Australia's tactics wrong in the defeat to England. Credit: EPA

He has been adamant from game one of the tournament that Australia should adopt an all-out attack method, with little kicking in general play.

It was never convincing in pool play and backfired badly against England, with possession frequently turned over deep within their own territory, which the clinical winners feasted off.

Cheika refused to accept he had got it wrong.

"That is the way we play footy. I am not going to a kick-and-defend game," he said.

"Call me naive but that's not what I am doing. I would rather win playing our way, that's the way Aussies want us to play."

It has been a common refrain throughout the tournament, as has been Cheika's beef that teams have scored their tries through one-off methods such as intercepts.

Halfback Will Genia (C) is among a group of senior Wallabies who hung up their boots. Credit: AP

That was the source of two of England's four tries on Saturday and Cheika said the final scoreline didn't reflect how competitive his team were.

"You could say it came down to a few key moments. Everything was pretty tight. We have come to the tournament and played, over the last two years, our best rugby.

"We've played a lot of attacking rugby, scored some good tries.

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"As tends to happen to us sometimes, over the past few years, we go hard on the attack and sometimes we will encounter intercepts and dropped balls."

If there was tournament where Australia could play conservative rugby it was this one.

The Wallabies tight five more than held their own in the set pieces and, until the final quarter, arguably edged the vaunted English pack.