Tom Wood: We’ve got plenty of world class stars
Wood, the forthright Northampton flanker, was one of the few people to openly declare England’s 3-0 tour whitewash to New Zealand in the summer was a ‘gutting’ experience.
And now he wants England to bin their ‘plucky losers’ tag and adopt a ruthless winning mentality during November’s Test series.
“We have the players,” said Wood. “In terms of athletic ability and skills I’d put Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury up there with any international second rows.
“Not many people in world rugby carry like Billy Vunipola or Manu Tuilagi, while Mike Brown and Ben Foden on top form are both pretty devastating full-backs. From afar we kind of glorify and idolise some of the Southern Hemisphere teams, but we’ve got plenty of world-class players with more coming through.
“We’ve just got to all hit top form and there’s everything to play for this November. Now is the time to start making a claim.”
Wood made his views felt in The Rugby Paper after the June tour to New Zealand ended in defeat.
He has not changed his mind. “We made a decent fist of it in New Zealand having been handicapped by the scheduling, but to me it felt like we were content with just giving it a good crack,” he said.
“The English rugby public and media just seemed to say, ‘Fair play, you gave it a go and didn’t embarrass yourselves’, but that didn’t sit well and I felt we were more than capable of beating them.
“Whether it’s lapses in concentration or brief patches of games that are costing us, I was just really annoyed. I went down to New Zealand believing we would win and was gutted we didn’t.
“But hopefully we can rally. We’re on a mission this autumn to get the wins we need.”
Wood adds: “We do need to get that win percentage up, especially building into a World Cup.
“We’ll never be happy losing to anybody, whether it’s the All Blacks or otherwise, and this autumn will be a good test of where we are.
“There are plenty of injuries, obviously, but I still think we’re in a pretty good place and we’ll be fresher than we were during the summer tour.”
Having shaken off a back injury, Wood should be named in this week’s squad.
But he adds: “You can never rest on past performances and there are other players coming forward.
“Myself, Chris Robshaw and Billy Vunipola, who’ve played regularly under Stuart, have probably got credit in the bank, but that only goes so far when you’ve got James Haskell, Will Fraser, Calum Clark and Matt Kvesic playing well.”
As for talk of Steffon Armitage entering the selection fray, Wood says: “If he did come back it would stop some of the debate. As players you want to be selected on merit, you don’t want to be picked because of a technicality.”
NEALE HARVEY
