Woodward: England aren’t worldbeaters yet
Clive Woodward believes England’s winning streak would have crashed to an abrupt halt had they played the All Blacks instead of Australia at the weekend.
Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, the former England and British and Irish Lions coach made the comment on the back of England’s 37-21 win against the Wallabies at Twickenham.
The win ensured England finished the year with 13 wins from as many attempts, but Woodward wasn’t getting carried away with the result after his former side started poorly and trailed 16-13 at the break.
‘‘Everybody in the England camp will know that if that had been New Zealand on Saturday the game would have been lost after 20 minutes,’’ Woodward wrote in his column.
‘‘If England are to win the World Cup again, now - this week is the time to be hyper-critical on and off the field, because they are not worldbeaters yet.’’
Woodward, who guided England to their only World Cup title (2003), poured further water on English fans celebrating their remarkable year, pointing out the World Cup was still three years away and that all the teams will ‘‘arrive fully loaded and prepared’’.
‘‘We just haven’t seen [that] from the Southern Hemisphere teams this autumn,’’ he wrote.
Before beating the Wallabies for the fourth time this year, England blasted struggling South Africa 37-21, made light work of Fiji, 58-15, and comfortably Argentina 27-14.
Woodward guaranteed England coach Eddie Jones won’t have glossed over his team’s sluggish first half against Australia when debriefing the end-of-year tour.
‘‘Winning teams crack the whip in victory even more than in defeat and analyse why they are winning, always trying to raise the bar inch by inch in every part of their game.’’
But, despite not being overawed by England’s final performance of dispatched 2016, Woodward didn’t hold back when looking at the future, one which doesn’t include an England and All Blacks fixture until the end of 2018.
He said he was ‘‘massively excited’’ about the future and believes the team has only just scratched the surface of what will become a golden era for England.
‘‘Especially in attack where I am not sure they even realise how potent and dangerous they can and must become.
‘‘And there is a conveyor belt of talent coming through that will challenge and refresh this group and keep the edge that fierce competition for places brings.
‘‘There are options and exciting possibilities everywhere and I genuinely believe that this, finally, is going to be the start of a new golden era for England.’’