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Looking for England improvement

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Posted: Wednesday March 17, 1999 03:59 PM

English captain Lawrence Dallaglio prepares for the "massive" task of playing France. AP

LONDON (Reuters) -- England's rugby union squad had a light workout under sunny London skies Wednesday but the relaxed exterior masked a steely determination to find the improvement necessary to beat France on Saturday.

Coach Clive Woodward worked on organization and strategy for more than an hour as he sought to iron out the weaknesses of the opening two games against Scotland and Ireland.

And he found a willing group of players, who, despite winning both games, are well aware that France will provide a tougher challenge.

Flanker Neil Back said: "We have won both games but I am not as happy as I might be because we can play better. I am always looking for the perfect game and that has not happened.

"Playing France is a massive match, we all know what hangs on this one.

"Once the squad came together at the start of the week there was a real buzz in the camp. The players want to get on with this, get the job done.

"By the time we come out against France we will have a very clear idea of what we want to do."

Scrum-half Kyran Bracken said England will be paying particular attention to French halfbacks Philippe Carbonneau and Thomas Castaignede.

"I rate them extremely highly," said Bracken. "Carbonneau is an attacking scrum-half, tough to play against because you do not know what he is going to do, and Castaignede is one of the best fly-halves in the world.

"When we played Ireland we targeted their fly-half David Humphreys and that worked quite well. But it might be a different case against Castaignede.

"But if you focus your attention on one player you lose sight of the other 14, all of whom can win games.

"Five Nations rugby is very fickle, anything can happen. But hopefully we will be a little bit different against France, a little more exciting."

 

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