England coach Anna Mayes has admitted that her side were unable to cope with Australia's fast start in Sunday's Test in Bendigo.

England, who were narrowly beaten by the Aussies at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the summer, suffered a heavy 55-37 loss to the Diamonds.

"You can win or lose a match in the first quarter and unfortunately they came out really hard," The Guardian quotes Mayes as saying. "It was obvious that they were really match sharp after four games against New Zealand and while we prepared for that we were a little bit hesitant.

"When we stopped running with the Aussies and changed direction we were a lot better in attack and that's what we did in the second and third quarter particularly."

Caitlin Bassett impressed for Australia by scoring 13 goals from 14 attempts.