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High expectations England hopes to build on Bloemfontein victory
Updated: Friday November 17, 2000 11:32 AM
LONDON (Reuters) -- England coach Clive Woodward wants to use his side's victory over South Africa on their tour during the European summer as a platform for a winning run, starting with Saturday's test against world champions Australia. "There is no point beating one big team and losing the next one," Woodward said ahead of the Twickenham clash, England's first outing since the drawn series with the Springboks. After losing the first test they won the second clash in Bloemfontein 27-22 on June 24. "It is important to win three, four or five in a row but that puts more pressure on England than Australia. This is the start of our season so it is very important to win," he said. "Historically, England have won a lot of one-off games and we must remember we lost our first match of the South African tour this year and did not score a try in the second, so we are keeping our feet on the ground." He added, "Unless we beat South Africa and Australia regularly, nothing has changed." After living in Australia for five years, former England centre Woodward has seen both sides of the rivalry between the two nations. England have not beaten the Wallabies since 1995 but have come very close in recent seasons, drawing 15-15 at Twickenham three years ago and just losing out 12-11 in 1998. "This is a game we really want to win. In the first year they came here it was 15-15 and we should have won," Woodward said. "The next year we lost 12-11 to an injury time penalty. Had we been playing Australia the week after Bloemfontein we would have been more confident than we are because of the long break since that match. "But we fully expect to win this game, as we do with all test matches at home. We are playing South Africa next week and then comes the Six Nations, so a win here would set that up for us." Woodward dismissed Australian claims that they will be understrength. The absence of leading players like Tim Horan and Jason Little, he feels, was inevitable and in scrumhalf Sam Cordingley, Woodward believes they have found a worthy replacement for the injured George Gregan. "You just can't say that Australia are understrength," he said. "They have replaced players and they are not doing that by design, but the players they are missing were finished. "They are without [flyhalf] Stephen Larkham and Gregan but I have been impressed with the number nine. They are not many players short."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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