Sir Clive Woodward: Two major changes for England to beat France

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Woodward wrote: "To have any chance of winning, the first thing England must work on is their kicking game. In the defeat by Scotland, they neither kicked to compete or kicked to turn the opposition defence.

"They paid the price for kicking to a middle ground, as we saw through Duhan van der Merwe’s try. Against Wales, England kicked better, but it still was not good enough.

Wales had Leigh Halfpenny at full back and he is not the player he once was, lacking the pace required to play the modern game. I

"f Wales had Jason Robinson at full back — a player who could run the ball back at speed — England would have been murdered."

Woodward wrote: "The second area England must be at their best is the breakdown. Make no mistake, they were excellent in this aspect against Wales.

"The back-row of Lewis Ludlam, Jack Willis and Alex Dombrandt did a fine job.

"But France and Ireland will be much better than Wales at the contact area. Wales’ paucity allowed England to steal the ball. Their support runners to the ball carrier weren’t good or quick enough. France and Ireland are far better.

"England will have to make sure that when their carriers go forward, they get the first man there in support to get over the ball. If a blue or green shirt gets there first, then there will be big trouble."