Fly-half Owen Farrell is adamant he is fit and ready to face the All Blacks on Saturday despite having started just one match since September 20.

Farrell was forced to spend a month on the sidelines with a quad strain but he started against Munster in the last round of the European Rugby Champions Cup and Stuart Lancaster has opted to start him ahead of George Ford.

"The Munster game showed I can play a full game of rugby, but I've felt good for a bit longer than that," Farrell said. "I'd pushed to come back a little bit earlier than when I did, but having one or two more weeks was probably the right thing to do.

"I feel like I've kept up to speed with everything, made sure I've done my work off the field and also kept up with my skills on it. So if I was selected I'd be confident."

Farrell viewed his rehabilitation as the chance to swot up on the tactical theory of fly-half play. "I was watching enough rugby that I was still improving even though I was injured," Farrell said. "As a fly-half you try to watch a game and see all the decisions that have been made.

"You ask yourself what you'd do in that situation and what effect that decision has on the game. "Sometimes doing that, for me, is better than having a training session."

Lancaster stated on Monday that the All Blacks cannot be mastered through goalkicking alone, instead highlighting the importance of scoring tries against the sport's most clinical team. Farrell has picked up the baton by stressing the need to carry the fight to Richie McCaw's tourists and feels victory would justify his conviction that England are heading in an upwards trajectory.

"We have to be positive. We won't go into the game trying to just hold them out, we will go in and have a go," Farrell said. "If that positivity turns into pressure and you get three points from it then that is the case, but we will be positive in the way that we play.

"As a group we feel we are definitely going in the right direction, but we have to put in the performances to back that up. Hopefully those performances will turn into wins. It is important we keep getting better and we keep pushing each other along and that we are constantly striving to be the best we can be.

"As long as we are doing that, the performances will come."

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