England will be hurting more than ever after squandering a ten-point lead and gifting arch rivals Wales victory through costly mistakes, according to South Africa's 2007 World Cup winning coach Jake White.
Stuart Lancaster now faces arguably the biggest challenge of his career to lift his side for Saturday's titanic tussle with Australia at Twickenham, knowing only too well that failure to win that match will more than likely see England bow out in the pool stages.
England have this week to regroup as Lancaster’s men hope to avoid the tag of becoming one of the country’s least successful World Cup sides ever and the first host nation to exit at the group stage.
But former South Africa coach White, who famously guided the Springboks to the Webb Ellis Cup eight years ago, admits the backlash from a big defeat always falls on the coach's shoulders.
The 52-year-old believes England were their own worst enemies after relinquishing a 22-12 advantage with only half an hour left to play in front of their own fans.
"Unfortunately when you're a coach you live and die by results and when it's going well you're obviously top of the pops and when it's going badly you get criticism," White told Sport360 in an exclusive interview.
"I think there's an expectation from England, from the fans, the public and from obviously everyone who's involved in English rugby for them to be competitive in this World Cup. They're hosting it, they've known for a long time that this is the tournament where they want to step up to the plate and I think they will be very disappointed."
Despite losing their lead in the match, England did have an opportunity to snatch a draw at the death but captain Chris Robshaw opted to kick to the corner rather than make an attempt for the posts and level the scores.
Regardless of that late decision, White says England should not have been in that desperate a predicament anyway.
"People are saying that last penalty should have gone for the posts but if you're really truthful about that game they should have never have been in that situation where they would have taken three points for a draw," said White said speaking at a coaching session with young players at Dubai English Speaking College.
“That's the margins that are in sport. With all the injuries Wales picked up and the continuity that they lost, I think that's why England supporters are so disappointed. It wasn't that they got beaten, they ended up losing that test match by themselves.”
White feels England will find it difficult to bounce back from their Pool A defeat and progress to the latter stages of the event, although he insists England still have a chance on home soil.
"So does Stuart have a tough job? Yes, of course he does. It's never happened that a team's gone along, lost in a pool game and either ended second or first," added White.
“[But] it's irrelevant. There's still a lot of history to be written. Maybe England losing that game and going onto the quarter-finals and winning it will be another act in history. And anotther reason for World Cups to become so great.”
