England coach Martin Johnson will need to regroup the team after the demoralising losses [AFP]

Amid the carnage, New Zealand, missing a dozen leading overseas-based players, completed a grand slam without conceding a try while England suffered record home defeats by South Africa and the All Blacks and their second-worst defeat against Australia on successive weekends, scoring just one try in the process.

Poor form

England have now lost seven in a row against the All Blacks, six against South Africa.

Scotland and Ireland have not managed a win over New Zealand for 105 years and few would bet on anything changing in that area for the next century.

France sent a weak team to Australia in June and were duly thrashed twice but at full strength on home soil against some weary Wallabies in November they were still beaten 18-13.

Wales looked a cut above their neighbours for most of the month.

They were ahead of New Zealand at half time and finished on a high with their 21-18 win over Australia but their defeat to South Africa was their fourth in 12 months with an average losing margin of 17 points.

It seems a long, long time ago that England were racking up 12 consecutive victories over the southern giants culminating in their World Cup triumph in Sydney in 2003.

The reasons behind the disparity will have been discussed late into the night in the bars of London, Dublin, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Paris over the last few weeks.

England manager Martin Johnson hinted on Saturday that England might have fallen behind in terms of fitness and the fact that New Zealand conceded only three points in the four second halves of their grand slam sweep certainly indicates a disparity in staying power.

Watching the Tri-Nations players go about their business when many of them were playing their 14th or 15th tests at the end of a gruelling post-World Cup season, it has been clear that they are generally sharper, more precise and more organised.

They show more intelligence at the breakdown, think and respond quicker to turnovers and, encapsulating the essence of rugby, are more aggressive at the same time as being more disciplined.

Dallaglio, right, pictured with Johnson, believes England will learn from their mistakes [GALLO/GETTY]

England finally put up some feisty resistance on Saturday but in doing so crossed the line too often and gave away a heap of penalties and had four men sent to the sin bin.

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio said the current crop of players must learn quickly from their "brutal baptism".

"The first thing the players must do is take every feeling they had in that changing room, every one of those emotions and put them in a bottle never to be forgotten," he wrote in British newspaper The Sunday Times.

"At the moment they are good enough to play for England but that shouldn't satisfy them.

"They've got to realise it takes something more to be a world class player."

The northern players will now return to their clubs and reacquaint themselves with their local competitions and the Heineken Cup and next February will re-convene for the Six Nations championship.

The British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa next June will add spice to the tournament but, hanging over it like a black cloud, will be the memory of this annus horribilis.