Friday 18 September 2015 09:19, UK
Tom Wood says England are hoping the spirit of the London Olympics can spur them onto lifting the Rugby World Cup for the second time.
The tournament begins at Twickenham on Friday night when England take on Fiji and the hosts must also meet Wales, Australia and Uruguay in Pool A, with at least one tier-one heavyweight certain to miss out on the quarter-finals.
British athletes used the platform of competing in front of their home crowd in 2012 to claim 29 gold medals - their highest total since 1908 - and Wood is hopeful England can elevate their performance in a similar manner.
"Stuart [Lancaster, head coach] has talked a lot about being on the front foot with English identity and our national pride. We know what that can do for us," said blindside flanker Wood, who will start against Fiji.
"We want to try to harness that. We know what it did for the British athletes at the Olympics and we want some of that.
"We know it is a two-way thing. We have to go out there and give the crowd something to cheer - we have to show real intent, endeavour and execute well.
"Hopefully on the back of that there will be a snowball effect. They will get behind us and carry us through."
England head into the tournament as second favourites behind defending champions New Zealand and Wood knows that while playing at home is an advantage, it does bring added pressure to perform.
"It's a difficult balancing act. You want to be in the zone, focus on your game and have tunnel vision, but at the same time we want to take full advantage of playing at home and the crowd," Wood said.
"We want to soak up the atmosphere. We don't want to look back and feel it passed us by. We want to really use that as best we can while keeping our eyes on the prize.
"It's going to be a great occasion. The emotion can get the better of you. You can find yourself forcing things and getting carried away or you can be inspired to deliver the performance of your life."
Wood insists that should England fail to make an impact, it will not be through lack of effort.
"I know we're not entitled to win it. There are some great teams out there and I can't promise you success," Wood said.
"All I can say is that we've left no stone unturned in terms of our preparation. We have absolutely given everything to the cause, put ourselves through absolute torture in the gym and on the field.
We have absolutely given everything to the cause, put ourselves through absolute torture in the gym and on the field.
"We've been committed to making each other better and I feel ready. I feel prepared and I hope that those lessons were learned from finishing second in the Six Nations campaigns will stand us in good stead.
"We'll manage the hype and expectation and all that comes with that on home soil, but I'm humble enough to know that there's no entitlement and no guarantee.
"The bounce of the ball can be a cruel thing, a refereeing decision can go against you, so we just have to do our best to give ourselves the best possible chance in each and every game."
