Sir Clive Woodward: England players are not fit enough

World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward says England's current squad are nowhere near fit enough to compete with the southern hemisphere giants.

England opened their Six Nations campaign with a 15-9 victory over Scotland and take on Italy in Rome on Sunday.

The Murrayfield match was new coach Eddie Jones' first in charge, and the Australian, and his defence coach Paul Gustard, have admitted they think England's players must improve their fitness.

Writing in his column in the Daily Mail, Woodward, who guided England to World Cup glory against Jones' Wallabies in 2003, wrote: "I did not know whether to laugh or cry when England coach Eddie Jones and his defence man Paul Gustard both insisted this week that England weren't fit enough.

"This was nothing new to me. My 2003 team were coached and selected on the basis of being 'the fastest and fittest team in world rugby', which we became.

"In recent years there has been a total misunderstanding of what is physically required to be the No 1 team in the world. This is a power sport but at the highest level that isn't enough. If a team don't have the ability to relentlessly attack and play at speed for 80 minutes you're a sitting duck and you'll be blown away by those who can."

He added: "Looking man for man between my England team in 2003 and the England team at last year's World Cup, I would still rate my team as being fitter and better equipped physically to beat the speed of the southern hemisphere teams, which is a staggering statement to make.

"How can that be, given all the advances in sports science we read about? And who has been responsible for that decline?

"England haven't just been standing still, they've been going backwards for the last 13 years."