Hungry: Stuart Lancaster
England coach Stuart Lancaster wants to use the team's record-breaking win over New Zealand as a springboard to success in the upcoming Six Nations.
Following narrow defeats by Australia and South Africa, England stunned the world of rugby with a blistering win over the All Blacks in December.
The 17-point difference gave England their best winning margin against New Zealand but the manner of their victory was especially impressive.
Having gone 15-0 up early in the second half, England saw New Zealand close to within a point after two tries in three second-half minutes.
However, England themselves then responded with three tries of their own as Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and Manu Tuilagi crossed the try-line.
Lancaster though warned Monday the euphoria of beating the All Blacks would count for little if England, last season's runners-up, failed to maintain their form in this term's Six Nations.
In contrast to the New Zealand match, England will be firm favourites to beat a Scotland side who haven't won at Twickenham since 1983 when they start this latest Six Nations at home to their oldest rivals on February 2.
"We need to make sure we build on our performance," Lancaster told Sky Sports.
"We had a great win there but equally we're still disappointed to have lost the Australia game and the South Africa game.
"What a great way to finish and a great stepping stone to take into the Six Nations, but the games go on and what we need to do is learn our lessons from that and take the positives, of which there were many - the consistency, the intensity and the way we kept playing for 80 minutes.
"That's great confidence for us and the players to take into the Six Nations but with Scotland round the corner we can put that to bed and recognise there's going to be a huge challenge coming our way and we need to be ready for it."
England won the last of their 26 Championships two years ago but they haven't completed the coveted Grand Slam since 2003 - the same year they won their lone World Cup title.
Comments
Heart_of_oak says...
The Irish neArly always surprise us in Ireland and the Welsh beat us last time around. We lost to Australia and we lost to South Africa both of which were home games. France will also be very hard to beat. They have a great pool of players.
So please, let's not get cocky.
Posted 14:03 15th January 2013
lawynd says...
@Propmelsey - which do you want? A lack of disappointment or progress, because the two are not the same thing. Winning the tournament with four wins would be a massive achievement; coming second with four wins achieved in some style would also be an achievement. Three wins, not so much, but it obviously depends on the nature of the defeats again. This is a young team that are still learning, it's ok to lose sometimes as long as there are positives to take, and is better for the future than winning and not learning anything.
Posted 13:11 15th January 2013
Propmelsey says...
@lawynd ...... Sorry if i come over as ignorant and arrogant .... just think it's a year when the other teams are a lot weaker than us ..... we should be able to improve on last years 4 wins ...... As i say .. anything less than 5 wins isn't really an improvement for this England squad .....
Posted 11:47 15th January 2013
Doyley says...
Agreed @lawynd!
Posted 10:48 15th January 2013
lawynd says...
@Propmelsey - comments like that are why many get away with thinking English fans are ignorant and arrogant. Wales can't be as bad as they have been over the last few tests, Ireland are always tough at home, Scotland and their interim management team have nothing to lose by having a go, Italy keep improving (and the performances of some players for Treviso this season will aid that) and France looked ominously good in the autumn. A tournament win, let alone a Grand Slam, is nowhere near certain.
Posted 10:39 15th January 2013
Propmelsey says...
We (England) won't get a better chance than this year. Anything less than 5 wins will be disappointing.
Posted 09:46 15th January 2013