Thursday, September 2, 2010

England will rescue their reputation by winning the Six Nations according to World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio.   

Anyone who had the misfortune to watch England’s awful autumn Tests, in which they lost to Australia and New Zealand and looked average in beating a below-strength Argentina, may well snigger at such a suggestion.

But rugby legend Dallaglio claims that England will bounce back next year.

“I said after England lost to New Zealand that England will win the Six Nations and people think I’m mad,” Dallaglio said.

“But they will be stung by the criticism, be fired up and have players fit again and have a point to prove, and a team with a point to prove is a dangerous thing.

“They have Wales and Ireland at home.

Wales are first up and they are followed by Italy away then Ireland at home so the fixture list favours England.

I do think they will be up there or thereabouts.”

However, while he is optimistic about the future, Dallaglio is under no illusions about the present.

The only thing worse than the rubbish results was the lack of creativity shown by the 2003 World Cup winners. And Dallaglio knows a vast improvement is needed if England are to do some damage in the Six Nations, which begins in February.

“You cannot say there was a lot to be positive about,” the Emirates ambassador added.

“I heard the quote ‘we’re losing better now’ which isn’t the best quote I’ve heard.

“It’s been a disappointing autumn campaign but I think it’s always hard to measure sides when they are missing several of their key players.

“(Coach) Martin Johnson (pictured left) has had two autumn campaigns and he’s approaching his second Six Nations.

It’s very easy to be negative about it and call for wholesale changes.

Any team goes through a rebuilding process, admittedly with England that rebuilding is taking a long, long time and the longer it takes the more questions are asked.”

Many of England’s critics have urged Johnson to ditch some of his coaches after the autumn debacle and it is not hard to see why as, with ball in hand, the side struggled to create any chances and looked limited.

But Dallaglio feels people should back his former captain’s judgment and get behind the side.

“Martin inherited a coaching team of John Wells, Mike Ford and John Callard and they decided to remove Brian Ashton and bring in Brian Smith,” he added. “Ultimately he will live and die by his results and the jury’s very much out at the moment, but he’s got a Six Nations campaign coming up.

“He’s put his reputation on the line and he knows that.

“There’s a very fine line in international rugby and if England win a couple of games then everyone will say the opposite.

He’s got some decisions to make and he’s decided he’s not making any rash decisions and one of his strengths as a person is that whenever he played in winning sides he never got too carried away and whenever he played in losing sides it was never the end of the world - he’s that sort of guy.”