England's spirit has been the key

We're now just a few days away from the World Cup final. There's been a lot of talk this week about how England have achieved this extraordinary renaissance since being thrashed by South Africa in the group stages. My answer would simply be 'look at the players'.

They've sat down and said 'Right, let's sort this out'. They've decided, 'we can either go out of the tournament without a whimper or we go out and give it a go and make ourselves difficult to beat'. That's been good enough to win them the last four games.

I don't know why people are searching for some sort of magical button that's been pressed. It's down to the attitude of the players.

A lot of people have been hopping on the back of the bandwagon in the last week or so. Obviously the coach has helped but it's the team that have got themselves back in it. You have a point after you've lost 36-0 when you come out fighting or you disappear.

As for England's preparations this week, it's just about the detail; doing specific work on their play, set piece and line-outs. A lot of the week is mental, getting themselves in the right frame of mind. It won't be a big physical week for either team.

England may have exceeded expectations already but once you're in the final that changes. The expectation this week will be higher than it has all tournament because you're in the final and people will want to come over and watch England win. It's as simple as that.

The level of expectations is certainly more on South Africa as they're favourites but we just showed in the last three games that when you're in a match you have a chance regardless of the opposition. Can we do it for a third week on the trot? Hopefully we can.

England have made just one change, with Mark Cueto coming in for Josh Lewsey. It's very tough on Josh but these things [injuries] happen in rugby, unfortunately.

Mark has not played a game for a long time so that is possibly an issue but obviously it's a World Cup final so Mark just has to slot in there and do a job. I'm sure the Springboks will try to give him a high ball early on to test him out.

I'll be back on Friday with my thoughts when I'll be focusing on exactly how England can beat the Springboks and retain the Webb Ellis Trophy.

Comments

[joanne]

could of done better but team aint at full steam.. need more skinner