England v Fiji, November 10
Robshaw expects improvement
ESPN Staff
November 10, 2012
England's Tom Youngs takes the ball forward, England v Fiji, Twickenham Stadium, London, England, November 10, 2012
Tom Youngs impressed on his debut at hooker © PA Photos
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England captain Chris Robshaw called on his players to avoid a slow start against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Despite finishing with sevn tries in their 54-12 victory over Fiji, Stuart Lancaster's team started sluggishly before they hit their stride quarter of the way into the match.

"We were pretty slow coming out of the blocks today," Robshaw said. "We eventually warmed into the game but we cannot do that over the next three weeks."

Lancaster agreed with Robshaw and said England had "rusty areas" which need to be fixed before next week's clash against the Wallabies. Even though he watched wing Charlie Sharples and Manu Tuilagi run in a brace of tries, as well as scores from Ugo Monye, Tom Johnson and a penalty try he knows the SANZAR nations' defence will be harder to break down.

"Next week and the week after and the week after that we are going to have to be more clinical," Lancaster said. "It was good to get the win. We struggled a bit for 10-15 minutes. We didn't convert every opportunity but we were pleased with the opportunities we did take. It was a good start but we recognised the quality of the opposition that is coming around the corner. We will have to step up a couple of levels next week. Our cohesion is growing and that is what we will need. Australia, South Africa and New Zealand are cohesive and organised, and we will have to be at our best."

Alex Goode finished as man of the match and he too realised that there were times when England failed to impress at times in the match

"At the start we were a bit scrappy and there were a few errors," he added. "I thought when we hung on to the ball we created some good stuff."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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