Wednesday 3 December 2014 15:22, UK
England's resilience during a gruelling autumn has proved they have the spirit to shine on the World Cup stage, says captain Chris Robhsaw.
A 26-17 victory over Australia at Twickenham on Saturday salvaged respectability from an otherwise lacklustre QBE series with defeats by New Zealand and South Africa on the opening two weekends extending their losing run to five Tests.
Victories over Samoa and in particular Australia will help keep some of the critics off their backs and "relief" was the key word in Robshaw's reaction to the weekend's result.
"The pressure hasn't been a bad thing, it's just great to see how we have responded to it," said Robshaw, who was outstanding against Australia.
"Now we know that if it happens again the guys aren't going to crumble, they are going to stand up to it. They're going to find ways of winning.
"We all know we didn't start well - for whatever reason, we're not quite sure - but beating Australia was a great way to finish the series and that will give us confidence going into the Six Nations.
"If we had lost and looked back over this series having lost three out of four it would have been tough to take, especially being here at Twickenham, and especially with what's happening next year.
"To get the win was extremely pleasing, but we know it's not all smelling of roses and there are things to work on and improvements to be made.
"We know that when you get to a World Cup you can't afford to lose one or two games because then you are packing your bags and watching everyone else on TV."
Traditional strengths were enlisted to dispatch the Wallabies, who were dominated at the scrum and throttled out of contention by the tight five yet were still brighter in attack.
Centres Matt Toomua and Adam Ashley-Cooper impressed, out-performing England's midfield of Billy Twelvetrees and Brad Barritt with their intelligent and incisive play.
The Twelvetrees-Barritt axis is the third partnership in four games and while the rise of George Ford at fly-half is exciting and the emergence of wings Jonny May and Anthony Watson encouraging, the ongoing chaos at Nos 12 and 13 could be viewed as worrying.
The front and second rows earned special praise from Robshaw, who added: "We're extremely pleased with how the front five have gone all through the series. They got us out of trouble on occasions and were able to turn the screw.
"We've played some of the best packs in world rugby over the past four weeks and are extremely pleased with how the front five have done us proud.
"You look back at the history of English rugby and we have always had a good pack to go back to."
England were condemned for their tactical naivety against the All Blacks and Springboks and Robshaw admits they "over-complicated things" early in the campaign.
Perhaps with hindsight I should have been a little bit stronger on making it clear what the plan is
The gameplan was simplified against Australia, who provided the Red Rose's first win over major southern hemisphere in a year, and they prospered as a result.
England now have the forthcoming RBS Six Nations to address their three-quarter disarray, starting against Wales in Cardiff on February 6.
Head coach Stuart Lancaster is satisfied with England's ability to handle external pressure and admits he would have chosen a different running order for the autumn, accepting his own share of the blame for the tactical shortcomings earlier in the month.
"What I'd like to have at our disposal, like the All Blacks have, is a different strategy for different opposition," Lancaster said.
"We need to make sure we have all the tools in the box and pick the right tool at the right time. Wet weather rugby is part of that in the World Cup and we didn't play the conditions as well as we could have done against New Zealand and South Africa.
"Against Australia our plan was put to the players, the players applied the plan and we won the game. That's the most positive thing, whereas in the first two games we deviated a little bit from the plans.
"Perhaps with hindsight I should have been a little bit stronger on making it clear what the plan is."
