Garry Schofield, who enjoyed the finest hour in his international career in Melbourne in 1992 when he captain Great Britain to a 33-10 victory over Australia, feels England's World Cup dream died at the Telstra Dome on Sunday night.

However, the former Hull and Leeds stand-off insists the England players can salvage some pride from the wreckage of their 52-4 hiding by setting up a rematch with Australia in the final.

"The scoreline was a fair reflection of the match and I can't see there is any room for hope at all," said Schofield, who was capped 46 times by Great Britain.

"I don't get any satisfaction out of saying that because nobody wants us to win the World Cup more than I do but not telling the truth isn't going to fool anyone.

"I want people to wake up, I want people to realise that our competition is not as good as some people are hyping it up to be and the players aren't as good as they believe they are.

"It's all right puffing your chest out when you've beaten the NRL champions out of season but on Sunday night, in a full international, is when you find out the truth. What a painful truth it was."

The scoreline was England's biggest defeat in a World Cup match since a 49-6 reverse at the hands of New Zealand in 2000.

England scored just one try and conceded nine, including three each for Melbourne full-back Billy Slater and centre Greg Inglis.

"People say this isn't a great Australian team but you look at that backline and it's as good as any I played against. The forwards aren't bad either," said Schofield. "This is a high quality Australian team and, by the same token, a very poor English side. At the end of the day, it's all about pride now. Let's just see if we get to the final.

"The Kiwis will be a different kettle of fish to the team that lost 3-0 to Great Britain last year. They didn't want to play for Gary Kemble – I'm not saying that's the reason we beat them because we played some attractive football – but they are a lot more focused now and whichever team Tony Smith puts out has to rise to a massive challenge."

Schofield expects Smith to ring the changes this weekend by giving the players who have yet to play in the tournament some valuable game time. However, he has deep reservations over whether the fringe players can make much of a difference.

"The problem Smith has is that the quality of the players he can bring in isn't any better than the ones he leaves out," said Schofield.

"I think Rob Purdham will come in for Kevin Sinfield: I have a lot of time for Kevin but he's certainly not international class, he's been found out now in the last two games.

"Lee Smith deserves to start at full-back in place of Paul Wellens to give England more penetration in attack. Wellens deserves to be dropped.

"The man-management skills of the coach are going to be put in sharp focus over the next seven days.

"The players need to get over what happened on Sunday and the best way to do that is away from the training field, be it by having a few beers, playing golf, going for a barbecue – anything but constant analysis of where it all went wrong.

"They will be bitterly disappointed themselves but they have to get back up there and realise that they can't play that badly again.

"I played for my country for 10 years and was on the end of many hidings by some great Aussie teams and when you fall short you have to tell it like it is."

Schofield watched the match in Melbourne in his role as leader of a supporters' tour and had mixed emotions from his time in the Victorian capital.

"This is the first time I have been to Melbourne in 16 years and I arrived with a lot of happy memories of the place," he said. "The contrast with the memories I'm taking back with me this time couldn't be more stark.

"When I came out in 1992, the expectation was there. It was exactly the same before last weekend among the ex-players, the press and the spectators who have come out here in their thousands.

"Now it's gone. Everyone now knows we have no chance of winning the World Cup and that saddens me deeply."