Woodward is taking nothing for granted

14 April 2012

Clive Woodward believes favourite tags and world rankings will be irrelevant to the World Cup outcome in Australia.

The England squad arrived in Perth last night, and head coach Woodward today fronted his first official media conference, accompanied by coach Andy Robinson and defence guru Phil Larder.

England, ranked No1 in the world and among the clear favourites for global glory, are expected to make a major impact on the competition. But Woodward is keen to take things one step at a time and maintains his sole focus is Sunday week's Pool C opener against minnows Georgia.

"World rankings provide good debate and banter but we cannot control those things," he said. "The World Cup is a complete oneoff event, and it has nothing to do with world rankings or any tag of favourites.

"All we are thinking about is Georgia a week on Sunday. We are not getting carried away by anything."

The England players did some conditioning work on their first full day in Perth, and Woodward is relishing the challenges that lie ahead over the next seven weeks.

"The expectation is there, which is fantastic. We all appreciate the groundswell of support back home, but the expectation from within the team is far greater than anything outside it," he said.

England will conduct their training sessions at Hale School in the up-market Perth suburb of Wembley Downs.

And Woodward revealed today that Rugby World Cup organisers had offered England the chance to have screens erected around the training ground for privacy purposes, but it is not an offer England will take up.

"It wasn't my suggestion. It all seemed a little bit claustrophobic to have screens there. We are very happy with our training facilities," he said.

England are expected to crush Georgia, especially as they are without two senior forwards in captain and No8 Ilio Zedguinidze and flanker Irakli Gundishvili.

But Woodward is taking nothing for granted. He said: "We have watched the video of their recent game against Italy, and it was a game they should have won. We are also aware that most of their guys play professional rugby in France."

Woodward is taking nothing for granted

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