England haunted by opening loss

Six Nations: Gerry Thornley finds England and coach Andy Robinson looking no further than victory over Wales

Viewed from the outside, there's almost a degree of desperation about England as they embark upon another Six Nations campaign and another shot at redemption of sorts. From World champs to chumps is too easy to resist, given they have lost ten of their 19 games since the 2003 RWC final, and in the last two Six Nations the red rose has wilted to five defeats out of ten. Third and fourth is no place for England to be finishing.

This from a country that had won three out of four championships from 2000 to 2003, culminating in an overdue Grand Slam. In truth, that worldly team probably peaked in the ensuing summer when winning in Wellington and Melbourne, and were already on a downward curve before the post-World Cup slide.

There were, admittedly, signs of an upturn in the autumn when extending the All Blacks to a 23-19 win at Twickenham, either side of obliterating the Australian scrum in a laboured 26-16 win and then finally putting Samoa away.

Nevertheless, much of their entire season hinges on the outcome of Saturday's encounter with reigning Grand Slam champions Wales, easily the stand-out game of the opening weekend. It was the same last year, when Wales' 11-9 win in Cardiff ignited their five-game winning run and England's initial sequence of three defeats.

Nothing, arguably, will motivate them more than the memory of last season.

"Yeah it hurt, and it's hurt like hell," said Corry. "We want to get back into the mindset every time we pull on an England shirt, and every time the crowd comes to Twickenham, that everyone expects an England victory. I said that in the autumn and I'm saying that again now."

The emphasis on the opening game is particularly acute in England, where they have been spoilt by success and the five-year search for their Holy Grail and that 2003 Grand Slam. Merely winning a Triple Crown or even a Championship hardly registers, with media or public alike, no less than it did with Clive Woodward.

Although the RFU are a conservative bunch, there is a palpable feeling that Andy Robinson, Woodward's assistant since 2000 before taking over in 2004, has presided over far too much sameness, from back-up personnel to selection, as evidenced by a conservative selection policy last autumn and again this week. (There are even four venerable Lions on the bench - Lawrence Dallaglio, Matt Dawson, Julian White and Simon Shaw)

Similarly, all of Robinson's straight-bat, low-key utterances betray this as well. He will not look beyond this coming Saturday and will clearly take a win of any hue, with thoughts of expanding England's often sterile back-play and ability to turn possession and position into points reserved until after that.

"Any year it's about how you start, and it's a win on the first weekend. We 've the same fixture as we had last year, and you look at what Wales achieved last year. Whenever you look at the England-Wales match I think it was not a great game to watch, it was quite a poor game, and it was won by a kick in the last five minutes, which enabled Wales to grow some belief. For us it just created a litrle bit of instability and from that we stuck it through the championship, so it's vital that we get a win in this first game."

Robinson says the main lesson to have been learned from previous failures has been to focus more on themselves than the opposition. He refuses to look beyond this game and has even gone so far as to suggest Wales are favourites to win at Twickenham, where they haven't won since 1988, and to win the championship.

"It's a huge game for us. We want to really build this up. Twickenham is not a place for the faint-hearted, it's certainly a place that England love playing at and I think the players are relishing the challenge."

Presuming they have too much power up front and close-in for a comparatively pacey and sprightly Wales to cope with this Saturday, then that will deflect the heat from Robinson, his staff and his team for another little while.

Then come three away games in a row, including a visit to Paris, before hosting Ireland in the last game.

It could well be that four wins will keep the critics at bay, but in a fast-changing landscape which has seen the game move on from their 2003-winning formula, England will have to do some convincing and undergo a sea-change if they're to suggest they have the game to again conquer the world.