Martin Johnson refused to blame injury for Saturday's 18-9 defeat to Australia at Twickenham and vowed England would return a stronger team against Argentina next weekend.

England have lost half their first-choice squad for the entire autumn and fielded an unfamiliar side for the Cook Cup showdown. But despite securing reams of possession, they failed to threaten the Wallabies' line at any point and lacked imagination in attack.

"We've not talked about the injuries. That was the first game that team has played together but that doesn't excuse some things," he said.

"We will be better for that game. We'll improve on this for next week. We could have given ourselves a better chance of winning.

"We believe these guys are good enough to play in Test matches. Australia had been through the Tri-Nations and played a Test last weekend, we haven't.

"The leaders of this team have done a great job getting this team together."

England led 9-5 at half-time and looked comfortable, despite conceding a try to scrum-half and man of the match Will Genia.

But Australia dominated the second half with a second try from Adam Ashley-Cooper and eight points from the boot of Matt Giteau.

"We started very brightly and took the points when they were there," said Johnson. "It was disappointing to concede the try just before half-time and in the second half we struggled to get out of our own half.

"Both tries weren't good scores to give away but lots of positives came out of it, some of the young guys did pretty well."