Australia captain Stephen Moore says England deserved series whitewash

The Australia captain, Stephen Moore, says that England deserved their unprecedented series whitewash because they have “played well all year” but the hooker is confident the Wallabies’ collective self-belief will not be dented despite their worst home series defeat in 45 years.

Moore thought England’s sturdy defence was key to the tourists’ series win, but also cited his own team’s deficiencies without the ball as Eddie Jones’s side broke several records in their first series win down under – including posting a highest score in the country on two separate occasions, in the opening Test and Saturday’s third Test.

“It’s been a tough series,” Moore said. “We’ve given up 44 points, you just can’t give up that many points and win the game. There were some good things we have done through the series. We’ve got to keep that belief in the team and we have a lot of footy left this year.

“To England’s credit they deserved it. They played well. There’s no doubt about that. They deserved to win the series and have played well all year. We just weren’t quite good enough in this series and there are things we need to do a bit better. We will get on and do that now. I thought we stuck to our gameplan much better tonight – that’s a positive. And England didn’t give us much chance in attack, they defended really well.”

Despite his attempts to remain optimistic about the future, Moore called on frustrated Australia supporters to keep supporting the team. The Wallaby players will return to their Super Rugby clubs on Monday before regrouping in preparation for the Rugby Championship, which begins with a daunting double header against New Zealand on 20 and 27 August.

Moore added: “We will go away from here, we are a really tight group. We have a lot of footy left. The fans have been terrific all season. All I can say to them is stick with us, we will be working hard to improve. We’ll dust off and go again at our clubs on Monday.”