England lock Maro Itoje believes his side 'can get the job done' next weekend against the Springboks, calling it a 'wonderful opportunity' to 'take control of the narrative'.
Itoje and the rest of the England squad have lost both of their November Tests so far, and are winless in their last four.
Despite the issues facing England right now, Itoje is fully confident his side can come away with a win next weekend, but detailed they need to play 'smarter rugby' to do so.
"We don't want to be in this position, when we came into the Autumn nobody expected us to lose our first two," he told reporters after the game.
"It's still a tremendous opportunity next week, we have the world champions coming to Twickenham, it's a huge opportunity to do something. Whilst we're bitterly disappointed about the results, there's no doubt in my mind if we do our thing – if we're joined up, more consistent and play smarter rugby – that's a game we can win."
He also opened up on how his team need to 'rip into the game' at the Allianz next weekend.
"We have our backs against the wall, but it's still a tremendous opportunity and that's what we need to be excited about," he added.
"In times like this, it's tough and we definitely don't want to be in them, but it presents a wonderful opportunity for us to take control of our narrative and get the rewards for our efforts.
"From our point of view, we want to come back next week full of energy and bounce and just rip into the game; if we do that I think we can get the job done."
Whilst Itoje is fairly bullish on his team's chances next weekend, there will need to be a big step up if they want to get over the line.
England raced into a 15-3 lead against the Wallabies in the opening 20 minutes, thanks to a Chandler Cunningham-South brace, but errors on both sides of the ball allowed Australia a foothold back into the contest and they eventually claimed a famous 42-37 defeat.
Reflecting back on the game, Itoje pinned the loss on his side going away from the stuff they were doing well at the start.
"We went away from what was good about us. We attacked really well in the first 20, we were direct, but then we just started tipping it too much and ended up having loose ball and creating turnovers, we turned the ball over way too much today. This team is at its best when we're direct, and we need to be more consistent in regard to that."
He added: "It definitely hurts. What I said last week isn't too different to this week, the growth of this team is to be in those situations and close out the game. That's where we need to get better for sure."
This defeat also pulled their defensive issues into the spotlight. England missed a whopping 36 tackles against the Wallabies on Saturday, and the experienced second-rower has issued a rallying cry to his troops to be more aggressive in the future.
"I definitely think we need to be more aggressive and joined up (in defence)," he said. "Like today, because of the amount of turnovers, we probably weren't set to go as hard as we would like. The improvement would be to go harder off the line."
This was especially prevalent in Max Jorgensen's decisive final try, where England allowed Australia to play around them and get into the wide channels with relative ease.
"We just didn't defend as aggressively and as consistently as we needed to (to stop that try)," Itoje said. "All things being equal, we shouldn't concede a try from 40 metres out. We have to learn, get better and ultimately defend better and close out games."
"In those scenarios, we want to be the aggressors and get off the line. We want to attack games, not just see them out."
