Goode demands improvement

England fly-half Andy Goode has demanded a significant improvement from his side as they bid to recapture the Churchill Cup on Sunday.

Joe Lydon’s men dispatched Canada 29-5 at the Commonwealth Stadium to set-up a potentially fraught final appointment with Argentina, who also failed to convince in their opener against the USA.

England’s game plan against the Canuks was restricted by the whistle of referee Al Klemp and they were also hampered by their lack of discipline in the face of their opponents’ confrontational approach.

Goode and his Leicester team-mate Louis Deacon were sent to the sin-bin for off-the-ball incidents and they must keep their composure against Argentina, who will provide a greater physical challenge.

England are eager to win back the Churchill Cup following last year’s dramatic final when they lost to the New Zealand Maori in injury-time and Goode admits they will have to step up a gear if they are to satisfy their ambition.

“Canada fronted up well. It was a tough game and there were some big hits going in from both teams, some legal and some illegal. We struggled a bit with the referee’s interpretation of the breakdown,” he said.

“The penalty count was heavily against us and we struggled to get our game going for that reason.

“We couldn’t build pressure on their defence. We have plenty to work on ahead of the final.

“We’ll have to raise the bar against Argentina. Although they only just got past the USA, they are a step up from Canada.

“Argentina will be a sterner test up-front. They’ll have a bigger pack and the scrummage will be key.

"They are very strong in that department.

“They’ll be raising their game against us. But we’ll study them over the next few days and will pick out the holes in their defence.”

He added: “Canada was our first game in the tournament so it was always going to be hard to get everyone working together properly in the first half. We worked well in training but Canada turned it into a scrap.”

England may have struggled to impose themselves in the forward exchanges. Klemp’s harsh refereeing certainly did not help, but they were light years ahead in the backs.

In open space their quicksilver three-quarter line tore the outgunned Canadians to shreds with try scorers James Simpson-Daniel and substitute Tom Voyce causing the greatest damage.

“We have a lot of pace in the side with James Simpson-Daniel, Ugo Monye and Paul Sackey out wide. When Tom Voyce came on he carved them up pretty nicely as well. He did very well when he came on,” said Goode.

“We’re expecting our performance to improve. There were a few pieces of brilliance from the outside backs. The forwards scrummaged well but the referee kept blowing up for some reason.”