The 33-13 drubbing and early pool stage exit from the tournament was the worst result for a host nation in the tournament's history.

It was a sweet revenge. Suddenly all the angst of the last northern summer - England's 3-2 Ashes win and the attendant and ignominious end to Michael Clarke's Test captaincy - disappeared, replaced by the Australians' golden autumn victory on the rugby field.

The English have spent some part of this year joyously celebrating one of their rare on-field victories: the bicentenary of the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.

But if the Duke of Wellington really thought the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, their rugby defeat was shaped on the playing fields of Australia.

Fair-minded Englishmen and women immediately fingered the culture of the South Sydney Rabbitohs as being the cause of their chagrin and blamed former NRL import Sam Burgess for the rout.

Burgess was a rugby league star in England when New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe convinced him to join his newly-acquired Rabbitohs. Burgess helped South Sydney to its 2014 grand final and a photograph of him cheek shattered, eyesight almost lost, head tenderly cradled by Russell Crowe in salute to the hero of the hour captured the moment.

Last year he returned to England and rugby.

When Burgess was parachuted into the English national squad with less than a year's experience many traditionalists went ballistic. The social media hashtag #BlameBurgess went viral this week as Three Lions fans vented frustrations at England's failure to make it out of the competition's group stage. English selectors seemed to agree with the hashtag ranters, dropping Burgess from the team to play Uruguay this weekend.

Burgess became political football and now that most English of oxymorons, the sporting pundit, is claiming "Slammin' Sam's" conversion to union has been painful and he should be planning his return to Australia - for his own good.

The Australian affliction dogged England even before taking the field.

England was forced to comment on rumours of a training ground spat between assistant coach Mike Catt and former Melbourne Rebels five-eighth Danny Cipriani - with the former allegedly threatening to end the player's career after he failed to make the English squad.

An England rugby spokesman sounded like he was observing a jolly game on Eton's playing fields: "Danny and Mike were involved in a robust conversation on the training pitch following a misunderstanding around a training drill instruction. Both shook hands afterwards and the incident played no bearing on selection."

The supposed home of fair play has not taken defeat lying down.

England back-roomers were still waiting to hear from the sport's supreme governing body, World Rugby, which has been investigating an accusation of impropriety during the Wallaby defeat. Two coaches approached Romain Poite​, the French referee, to complain about his handling of the match.

Bookmakers have Australia favourite to win Sunday's match against Wales.