Adrian Morley believes England produced their worst performance of the Four Nations after crashing to defeat against Australia .
No fairy-tale ending to the Four Nations
Adrian Morley believes England produced their worst performance of the Gillette Four Nations after crashing to a 30-8 defeat against Australia in final at Elland Road.
England's improving performances throughout the round-robin stages had raised hopes of a first Four Nations success.
But although it took the Kangaroos an hour to finally quell the English challenge, there was no doubting their superiority as they dominated the game.
Morley, who made his 50th appearance to become the most-capped English player in the history of British rugby league, said: "It was a very proud moment for me to get the record but there was no fairy-tale ending.
"I thought we saved our worst performance of the tournament for the final. We didn't do ourselves any favours. Australia were just too good on the night.
"We did a lot of defending in the first half and, even though we were poor, we were still only 6-8 down at half-time. But we used that much energy, we didn't have a great deal left in the tank."
Champion
Morley was unable to celebrate his landmark appearance but the game went according to the script for Australia captain Darren Lockyer when he scored the last try on his farewell appearance, although he was unable to provide the final touches after slicing wide his conversion attempt.
"He's been an absolute champion," said Morley. "He'll go down as one of the all-time greats.
"It's a nice ending for him I suppose. We'd have liked to have spoiled it but that's the way it goes."
With no matches scheduled against Australia until the 2013 World Cup, for some England players Saturday's disappointment represented a last chance to topple the unofficial world champions.
"We spoke about that at length throughout this camp, the opportunity we had," said Wests Tigers second rower Gareth Ellis.
"With the belief and camaraderie we had built over the weeks, we felt it was written for us to go all the way and get that elusive win that England have been searching for for so long.
"But we just didn't play the way we wanted. You've got to give credit to Australia. They had a really simple game plan and put us under pressure early doors.
"With the scoreline at half-time we were in with a chance but the way we played took a lot of petrol out of our tank and that's possibly why they ran away with it a little bit in the second half."
