Jack gets a World Cup boost from Johnson

Jack van Poortvliet will enter World Cup year inspired by a talk from Martin Johnson that will fuel his drive to become England’s firstchoice scrum-half.

Van Poortvliet had made the position his own by the end of the July tour to Australia and ended the series by replacing underperforming veteran Danny Care in the first half of the Sydney decider.

But with Ben Youngs and Raffi Quirke available once more for an autumn series that opens against Argentina on November 6, the 21-year-old rookie faces a battle to retain the jersey.

“Everyone’s dream as a young player would be to play for England and once you have played for England, you want to win the World Cup for England,” Van Poortvliet said.

“Johnno is a very, very impressive individual and the way he speaks about his time as a player and his influence was extremely inspiring. I will remember some of the things he said for a very long time

“He got a few smiles when he told some old stories. It was a good day to have a chat to him.

“He spoke about how amazing that whole experience was of winning that World Cup. That just makes the taste for it grow even more.

“That is the ultimate goal for this squad – to win a World Cup. But we haven’t got many games so we have got to make sure we make the most of every game leading up to it.

“I remember coming out of the talk extremely inspired. One thing I really took from it was that he never missed a session. He was on it all the time.

“It was a big thing we took as young players – if you want to improve you have got to be on it and focused in every session you do on the field.”