[ad_1]
World Cup winner Jason Robinson says the current England squad remind him of the 2007 team who overcame a poor run of form to reach the World Cup final.
The 2007 team only won one warm-up game against Wales, before losing 36-0 in the pool stages to South Africa.
Saturday’s defeat by Fiji was England’s third loss in four warm-up matches before next week’s World Cup in France.
“We’ve got the players, we just need to find the formula and get the results,” said the 2003 World Cup winner.
“It reminds me of 2007 where we went out to France and were awful.”
Robinson played in the 15-6 final loss to South Africa in 2007, which was his last game of professional rugby.
After making it through the group, Brian Ashton’s side produced a big upset against Australia, winning 12-10 in the quarter-final, followed by a victory over hosts France 14-9 in the semi-final.
“We stumbled into a quarter-final and all of a sudden we realised we’ve got to find something here or otherwise we’re out – and we did,” former winger Robinson told BBC Sport.
“We came back and we ended up getting into the final.”
England also reached the final in 2019, producing a near-complete performance to beat New Zealand 19-7 in Japan, a game which Robinson says is “the best” he has seen an England team play.
Out of the starting XV who faced the All Blacks in 2019, 12 travel to France for the 2023 World Cup.
“The semi-final against New Zealand was the best I’ve ever seen England play and that’s including the 2003 World Cup team,” he added.
Despite England losing five out of their last six games, Robinson believes they are not “a bad team” and just need to find that “spark” to get going.
“At the moment we’re not combining all that talent and playing in the way we should,” he added.
“We’ve got to look inside internally and find something that’s going to give us a bit of a spark because it’s going to be tough.”
England begin their World Cup campaign against Argentina on 9 September in Marseille, before a likely quarter-final against either Wales, Australia or Fiji – with only Fiji currently above England in the world rankings.
“Thankfully, we’ve got an easier group compared to others, so I’m hoping that we get through Argentina, and then realistically we should get into a semi-final, but that said, it’s really competitive,” Robinson said.
“There’s a few teams like England, Wales, Australia, that probably are the underdogs, people have written them off, but I can see them causing an upset along the way.”
England will be without captain Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola for their opening game against the Pumas because of bans for high tackles, with Farrell also missing England’s second game against Japan.
Robinson is concerned that similar incidents during the World Cup could overshadow rugby’s showpiece in France.
He added: “We know it can certainly change a game, especially now with the head-high tackles and the laws that are in place.
“If you don’t get it right, then you’re going to find yourself down to 14 men, sometimes down to 13, and the reality is you’re going to lose games.”
