Imogen Allison, Jess Thirlby and England Roses left to ponder how to close gap on Australia Diamonds

This time it was just the Nations Cup, and not the World Cup as it was in Cape Town last August.

And they at least reasserted their position as the best of the rest in world netball by beating New Zealand on Saturday to reach the final.

But for the likes of Roses head coach Jess Thirlby and her energetic Huddersfield-born centre Imogen Allison, the four-team Nations Cup leaves them with plenty to ponder as they look to close the gap.

“It was a disappointing game,” admitted Allison, who had hoped in front of watching friends and family England could have got a lot closer to Australia than a 69-49 defeat.

“We played them last week and put on a really good performance (lost by two) and we wanted to learn from that.

“There were just moments in the game where we needed to push on, and we didn’t.

“Australia are a good team, they’re world No 1 for a reason, they got on top of us and we just didn’t adapt.

“We put out a great performance against New Zealand on Saturday, but we were unable to get over the line on Sunday.”

England are a team in transition with veterans like Geva Mentor and Jade Clarke having moved on after last summer’s World Cup. But nevertheless, the gap to make up was ruthlessly exposed by Australia.

Head coach Thirlby said: “I thought we started the game lovely, there was quite a decent feel in the team, nice confidence.

“I think you saw a little bit of grit, we stayed within touching distance going into half-time. It was a real shame we let that slip, our responses today weren’t at the level that they need to be against a team like that.

“We know where we are, we know we can compete, we know we’re capable… but we get punished in those moments and rightly so.

“We have to be smarter and that’s where we’re at, but I’m super proud that we’ve put ourselves in this position because it keeps telling us stuff that we need to know and we’ve got three years to keep building on that.”

Unsurprisingly from an Australian sports team, there was no let up in their intensity even as they took the game away from England.

If anything, some of the more shuddering hits were carried out by the Diamonds in the final quarter, who on three occasions left Roses players sprawled on the court.

Allison managed to stay on her feet, her speed and acrobatic delivery of passes to goal shooters Helen Housby, Sasha Glasgow and Eleanor Cardwell opening the door on a number of occasions.

She did so with her left knee heavily strapped up after suffering an injury in Saturday’s intense final group game with New Zealand.

“It’ll be fine,” she said, shaking off an injury that she was unwilling to force her out of Sunday’s final.

“Your whole body hurts when you do back-to-back games, it’s one of those things you have to brush aside and get on with.”

England’s Roses now depart the international scene for a while , the near-5,000 attendance in Leeds giving them an enthusiastic send-off as thoughts turn to the Super League season which begins on February 17, and for Allison means a new start with Manchester Thunder.

“I’m really enjoying my netball at the moment,” she told The Yorkshire Post. “It’s a great England team to be a part of so we’re looking forward to what’s to come internationally and also really excited to get into the swing of things with Manchester.”