- England have closed gap despite difficult series
- Breakdown battle crucial to our attacking game
Rob Andrew believes England have made progress despite defeats against Australia and New Zealand in the Investec Challenge games at Twickenham.
The RFU’s Elite Rugby Director reviews the series for RFU TV and says he “understands the frustration” generated by the team’s first half struggles in the 16-9 win over Argentina.
But despite the difficult autumn he believes England will improve going into the RBS 6 Nations, where they scored more tries than any of their rivals last season.
“This autumn has been difficult,” Andrew says. “But not as difficult as last autumn when we were blown away. We have closed the gap on New Zealand and Australia and we’ve got to keep working and building the side.
“If you look at the bald statistics we’ve competed set-piece wise, competed defensively, we’ve stopped the try-count which this time last year was three or four a game to one. Discipline we’ve improved massively. We’ve scrummaged better this autumn despite all the problems on the injury front.
“Where we still struggled was in the breakdown and in our ability to create quick ball and then to generate pressure in order to score tries. We have lost the turnover battle and probably on the back of that lost the attacking battle. If we fix that and keep everything else where it is we’ll be in good shape.”