Dallaglio fears over England’s journey to top

LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Jermaine McGillvary ENGLAND can forget about winning the World Cup unless they stop their tactical naivety and devise a Plan B.

Ex-captain Lawrence Dallaglio fears the nightmare defeat in Wales last weekend shows Eddie Jones’ side are not yet mentally ready to emulate the

2003 Sydney heroes.

Dallaglio (below) admitted that, after seeing England sweep aside Ireland and France, he was amazed by the failure to put the Welsh to the sword in Cardiff when they had them begging for mercy.

Having led at half-time, England lost

21-13 loss and must now pick themselves up for their last two home Six Nations clashes with Italy next weekend then Scotland.

But Dallaglio is worried about the lack of change in playing style when the going gets tough.

He said: “Wales may be unbeaten but England should have beaten them if they had the ability to go to Plan B. It was very disappointing they had no answer for when things started going badly.

“New Zealand were the last team to beat Wales in Cardiff and to do it last weekend would have been another huge statement for Jones (top) in the build-up to the World Cup.

“Wales were getting absolutely thumped. They then got the hairdryer from Warren Gatland at half-time and changed to kicking down there and testing England to see if they could play out of their half instead. “What this Six Nations has shown so far is that tactically a lot of the sides are still behind the southern hemisphere giants, particularly the All Blacks. “Ireland came unstuck in that first game against an England team which controlled the field position. “Then when England needed to alter their tactical approach in Cardiff they too came unstuck.

“They just kept kicking the ball to Wales and Liam Williams kept catching it. “They never changed the way they were thinking or doing things when they needed to switch the way they were playing. “That showed me is that New Zealand are still favourites to lift the trophy. “In my eyes New Zealand are without doubt still the favourites to win the competition. That’s despite losing to the Irish recently. “They have won the last two World Cups and are going for an unprecedented third in a row.”