No need to panic, Eddie’s still the man
MARK CUETO came within a fraction of an inch of potentially winning a World Cup when his ‘try’ in the 2007 showpiece against South Africa was disallowed for a toe in touch as he stretched for the line.
But the 38-year-old sees no reason why the Eddie Jones’ team cannot go all the way in Japan next year despite enduring a difficult 12 months.
“I think this squad is good enough to win the World Cup,” he said.
“You look at the first Test against South Africa, and the way they played in that first 30 minutes, they are still an unbelievably talented team, you don’t become bad overnight.
“We’ve got a pack that can take anyone, we’ve got three very good nines in Ben Youngs, Danny Care and Richard Wigglesworth and we’ve got the best ten in the game even though he is playing 12 in Owen Farrell. Jonny May is on fire, and we have got any amount of back three players to pick from. It’s all about momentum and winning games
“Sometimes you just need a bit of luck to go your way and, thankfully, I think we got that in the final Test. It was brilliant that they got that final result, because that’s’ the one you remember over the summer break before you get your boots back on again.
“I don’t think there is a need to make any wholesale changes, there is certainly no need to point the finger at Eddie. For me, we stick with what we have got and we build on that last win and hopefully we can have a good 12 months leading up to the World Cup.”
While England have a tough autumn campaign ahead of them with games against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, Cueto reckons the side will benefit greatly from an extended summer break.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how they go because they’ve got the big three and Japan who are no pushovers. But hopefully they will all be well rested.
“During the Six Nations comparisons were made between the average English player and average Irish player and the amount of games they’d played from September through to February, and our boys had played at least twice as many games.
“I know people don’t like using fatigue as an excuse for professional sportsmen but, I don’t care who you are, that makes a difference. I think the rest will do them all good, they’ll get five weeks off and a good pre-season in and hopefully they can hit the ground running for the autumn internationals.”