Corry's in Vickery's plans

England’s new rugby captain Phil Vickery today revealed that deposed skipper Martin Corry was the first player to congratulate him on his appointment.

The Wasps prop said: “The first person to call me was Cozza, who sent me a text message saying: 'Good luck. Wish you well.'"

Vickery, an England World Cup winner in 2003, is hoping that Leicester Tigers back-row man Corry will be part of England’s bid to retain the World Cup in France this summer.

The new captain continued: “He’s a great bloke and a good player and I hope he’s with me.”

Vickery called on England’s much-changed Six Nations squad, announced yesterday, to “step up the effort to put the bad run of results behind us”.

The 30-year-old explained: “We all need to work harder but, as I said after the autumn games, there aren’t any magic answers to anything.

“It’s all down to hard work and I hope we can all roll our sleeves up and show people we are capable of competing.”

Vickery, who returned from career-threatening back surgery to score the winning try as England beat South Africa 23-21 for their only victory in the four Twickenham autumn internationals, said: “I’ve watched England play and been frustrated as a supporter.

“There was a huge sense of disappointment and a lot of frustration as well and there is no point trying to take any positives from it because there aren’t that many. We just have to be thankful we’ve been given another opportunity.

“I want people to go out and show they are 110% committed to the cause and buy into what the coaches want us to do.

“There is the Six Nations coming up and we will find out a lot about both the individuals and the group,” he said.

Vickery described the new look that has seen the elevation of Brian Ashton to head coach and his own appointment as captain as “a great opportunity for myself, the coaches, the players and supporters to start something special”.

He admitted England are nowhere near the standard they were at in January 2003, before they went on to win the World Cup in Australia.

He continued: “Then we had a settled team who had played a lot of games together. It virtually picked itself.

“We all realise things have been pretty poor, particularly in the autumn series. We can dress it up as much as we like but we under-performed.”

England’s fall from world champions to Six Nations also-rans last season was, believes Vickery, due to a combination of factors.

He explained: “Players retiring, injuries, coaching, rest time, tours.

"I don’t think there’s anything majorly wrong. I think it’s a combination of small things and confidence plays a huge part in that.

“You can look back to when we had our most successful run of games. Some of those we didn’t win by much. It was just that we were very confident.

“The team had been together a long time and we had the balance to get the wins.

“You can’t buy that. It doesn’t just happen.

“The squad Brian picked may have shocked some people, with players coming in and going out, but it’s a great opportunity to build a team for the future of the English game.”

After bouncing back from his injury setbacks with Wasps, the side he joined in the summer after 11 years at Gloucester, he claims to be “at the moment, as fit as I’ve ever been”, and added: “I hope I’m bringing a certain amount of experience.

“As someone who’s been around for a while I think I get on particularly well with most people.

“I hope I will have the full support of players and staff and everybody connected with the England team.”