By John Geddie
LONDON (Reuters) - Australia finished their season on Saturday in the same way as last year: head-in-hands after defeat at Twickenham.
But coach Michael Cheika said he saw progress despite the 37-21 loss to England, his ninth defeat in 15 matches since his side came up short against New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final just over a year ago.
"We have had two disappointing finishes to 2015 and 2016 but we have definitely improved a lot as a team," said Cheika.
"There are many young lads now that have test experience, and we've got some other young lads that we are looking at bringing in next year as well."
Australia dominated the opening exchanges, smashing England in the tackle and zipping through their fracturing defence. Cheika's men seemed intent on not letting England match their record run of 14 consecutive wins.
But after leading 10-0 early on and taking a 3-point lead into halftime, they shipped 24 points in the second period.
"They were always going to get some momentum, and the times we needed to break that momentum, we made errors," he said.
Cheika singled out one moment in the match that put the contest out of sight. England scrumhalf Ben Youngs took a quick tap from a penalty, dummied his opposite number Nick Phipps, and swanned over the line to give the hosts a 12-point cushion.
"We turned out backs. That was unforgivable," said Cheika.
As with their defeat to Ireland last week - which ended their hopes of a grand slam over the northern hemisphere's main nations after wins over Wales, Scotland and France - Australia only shone for 40 minutes.
Cheika said his plan to build a skill set that will allow Australia to play an offensive style of rugby remains a work in progress.
"I'm seeing the improvements we are making, there are tries that we have scored here on this tour that we wouldn't have scored last year.
"We are making the investments we should have been making in 2008-2009, getting a clear idea around how everyone needs to play with a certain skill set if we want to play this running style of play."
Australia's next scheduled fixture is not until next June when they take on Fiji in Melbourne.
"We will continue to grow our group in 2017 so by the time we get to 2018 we will have a good selection to choose from and can narrow that down," said Cheika.