England full-back Ben Foden wants to 'right the wrongs' of the past seven years © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Ben Foden

Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations

Teams: England

Ben Foden insists anything but victory in the Six Nations tournament should be considered a failure for an England team looking to go to the next level ahead of the World Cup.

Northampton full-back Foden said it is time for England to "right the wrongs" of the last seven years, when he believes England have underachieved.

England last won the championship in 2003, when Sir Clive Woodward's side geared up for their World Cup triumph by storming to the Grand Slam. In the intervening years, England have twice plumbed the depths of fourth place. In 2008 and 2009 they finished second but last year slipped back to third.

The Rugby Football Union's chief executive John Steele has told Martin Johnson he expects an immediate improvement, setting England the goal of finishing in the top two.

Woodward's team were at their peak in 2003 whereas Johnson's young squad head into this World Cup year on a steep learning curve. But England are up to fourth in the world - the leading European nation - and Foden believes the next step will be mounting a Six Nations title challenge.

"The top two is a realistic target but as a squad we are aiming for the number one spot. Anything less would be a failure in our eyes," said Foden. "We are a confident squad, we feel like we are going in the right direction. We performed well in the autumn and we feel the next step for us is to challenge for the Six Nations.

"We want to right those wrongs from the last seven years, when we haven't been that impressive in the competition in terms of winning it. We feel like we have got our best foot forward. There are some tough games ahead. All the teams in the competition are of a high calibre. It is a tough job but I think it is a realistic target."

England's rise up the rankings came on the back of successive victories over Australia, the second of which at Twickenham in November was a record 35-18 triumph against the Wallabies. Although that performance infused the squad with confidence, the defeat to South Africa a fortnight later could ultimately prove more valuable. England, still on a high from the Australia win, failed to adapt their game and were taught a brutal lesson by the powerful Springboks. They cannot afford to make that mistake in the Six Nations.

"After the performance for the second 40 minutes against New Zealand and the wins against Australia and Samoa we were on a bit of a run and we probably took ourselves for granted a bit against South Africa," said Foden.

"We know what we did wrong. We have learned from that experience and hopefully grown as players and as a team. Our mindset is to win the game first and the way we do it comes later. We would like to play in an attacking way but primarily we need to win the game."

England are still sweating on the fitness of Leeds flanker Hendre Fourie, who will not return to training until next week as he nurses a calf strain. Johnson is already without Lewis Moody, Tom Croft and Courtney Lawes for the clash with Wales next Friday and Mike Tindall also gave England an injury scare this week.

The Gloucester centre was sent home from England's pre-tournament training camp in Portugal for an MRI scan after taking a blow to the thigh. But Tindall was cleared of any serious damage and he is set to resume training with the squad when they return to Pennyhill Park next week.