Buck stops with me, says outwitted Cheika

By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Crestfallen Wallabies coach Michael Cheika conceded his side was outwitted by England's defensive game in the second test in Melbourne and took responsibility for their failure to prevent the tourists winning their first series on Australian soil. England's iron-clad defence held off a sustained Wallabies' assault for much of the second half on Saturday before Owen Farrell grabbed a late try to secure an emphatic 23-7 win and seal the series 2-0 with a game in hand. England coach Eddie Jones described the win as "rope-a-dope" and he could claim another tactical victory over his former Randwick team mate Cheika after the hosts were outpointed in the Brisbane opener. "Same as last week as well, (we) played a lot of footy, but playing a lot of footy doesn't always win you a lot of games," a gloomy Cheika told reporters. "We have to learn to play a lot of footy and win the game, too, in the way we play that. "I've got to own that as a coach with those things. "That's the stuff we set out and I've got to make sure that message is clear. I know that we want to play a lot of rugby, but it doesn't always convert into the scoreboard and that will happen sometimes, but it shouldn't happen regularly." Australia scored four tries to England's three in Brisbane but lost 39-28 as Farrell's laser-guided kicking made the home side pay for repeated lapses of discipline. At Melbourne's Rectangular Stadium, referee Craig Joubert was less whistle-happy than Frenchman Romain Poite but Farrell slotted three out of four of his penalty kicks while Australia waved away their three-point chances in pursuit of tries. In the end, they managed only one from a rolling maul to captain Stephen Moore in the first half and were subsequently unable to breach England's defensive wall to score another despite dominating possession. Cheika guided Australia to the World Cup final with a commitment to running rugby, knocking England out of the tournament with a thrashing on the way. Seeing his game-plan reduced to rubble by a counter-punching England added to the sting of a rare series defeat by a northern hemisphere opponent. "You have to pay credit to England, they played very well in both games. They've played very smart and they've played in the right areas," said Cheika. "They've seen that we're going to play a lot of footy and chosen the opposite way and their way has been victorious pretty clearly." (Editing by Ian Chadband)