England still searching for balance says Ashton

RUGBY: England coach Brian Ashton admitted the World Cup holders were still searching for "balance" to their game ahead of Saturday's clash against Samoa in Nantes. England, facing the prospect of becoming the first defending champions not to reach the quarter-finals, need a convincing win to restore their morale.

They were below par in a 28-10 opening Pool A victory over the United States and on Friday suffered a 36-0 thrashing by South Africa at the Stade de France - their biggest World Cup defeat. "Everybody's got to stand up and be counted. We're playing two cup finals in two weeks (against Samoa and Tonga) and we need two wins," Ashton told reporters at England's hotel here Monday.

He added: "We've got the players to perform better than we are. We need to have a little bit more balance to our game." Ashton, who is due to name his team to play Samoa on Tuesday, said the fact England's next opponents had been surprisingly beaten 19-15 by Pacific Island rivals Tonga on Sunday would make no difference to his plans.

"I don't think Samoa will want to lose three in a row." Already out of this weekend's match is ex-England captain Jason Robinson. The full-back, England's best player against the Springboks, pulled up sharply just before the hour mark on Friday with a left hamstring injury.

Robinson, who scored England's lone try in the 2003 World Cup final, intends to retire from top-flight rugby after this event and the former Great Britain rugby league international was confident he'd yet to play his last Test match.

Monday, AFP