England suffered their biggest defeat in six years when their summer tour ended in a 51-15 setback against Australia in Brisbane.

Clyde Rathbone scored a hat-trick of tries, Jeremy Paul touched down twice and Lote Tuqiri grabbed the final score and Joe Roff kicking 21 points as Australia claimed the Cook Cup.

Although Richard Hill and Lawrence Dallaglio both scored during a brief revival either side of half-time, England couldn’t prevent the Wallabies from reversing the result of last November’s World Cup final.

The scoreline was the biggest loss for the tourists since their 64-22 ‘Tour from Hell’ defeat against New Zealand at Dunedin in 1998 and their fourth in a row this season.

Despite the margin of defeat, England could take positives from the game in the performances of Charlie Hodgson, Olly Barkley, Tom Voyce and the majority of a pack in which Wasps prop Tim Payne made a solid debut.

They fought their way back into the match early in the second half when Dallaglio’s try pulled them back to 24-15 down with all the momentum apparently going England’s way.

But Australia took advantage of slack defending, too many turn-overs and some imprecise use of the ball with some devastating attacks orchestrated by Steven Larkham and Stirling Mortlock to repeatedly launch Roff, Tuqiri and Rathbone into space.

Roff kicked two early penalties with Hodgson replying before Brumbies wing Rathbone – in the side after Wendell Sailor strained a hamstring in the warm-up – scorched in on the right. Roff converted and added a penalty to put Australia 16-3 up with only 22 minutes gone.

England hit back, though, when Voyce and Ben Cohen combined down the blindside with Hill perfectly placed to stretch over on the left.

Rathbone got his second just before the interval after another move involving Larkham and Roff and the latter extended the lead to 16 points with his 44^th minute penalty.

Then came England’s best spell as they retained the ball for long periods with replacements Barkley, Steve Thompson and Matt Dawson all involved. Hodgson’s half-break allowed Dallaglio to crash over and the fly-half converted to re-ignite the contest.

Australia were stretched soon after as England searched for space out wide only for Voyce and Thompson to get in each other’s way on the left.

And when they lost the ball a few minutes later the game was over as Rathbone completed his hat-trick by squeezing down the right and chasing his own kick ahead over the line.

By now England were running out of steam at the end of a season that started with their World Cup training camp almost 11 months ago.

Their defence was shredded again by Roff with Jeremy Paul on hand to take the scoring pass and the goal-hanging replacement hooker scored his second just after hour after Cohen and Mike Tindall conspired to lose the ball on the edge of the England 22.

Tuqiri added a sixth try for Australia and Roff completed his night’s work by taking the score past the half-century mark to finish his tally of five penalties and three conversions.